Road to parenthood
by Mary Michaelis
Summary: Sirius Black was desperately looking for an heir when he met four year old Hermione at a muggle orphanage so he adopted her, ignoring the fact that she was Harry's soulmate. Well parenthood is never easy, is it? Wolfstar, HarryxHermione. Warnings inside.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi, in case anyone reads this you have to know several things:**

**-I've been writing this Fanfic for a while, as a hobby, and I never thought about posting it so is not finished yet and the updates might take a while. **

**-I'm a die-hard shipper of HarryxHermione, it's been like that ever since I got into this fandom so if you don't like that ship you shouldn't read this. **

**-I don't like Ginny so she won't be a nice character here and while I like Ron I won't be nice to him either due to plot reasons. **

**-There won't be Voldemort in this story, he's dead, end of the story.**

**-I love the Malfoys so you can bet that Draco will be treated well in this Fanfic. **

**-There might be quite a fair amount of teenage drama. **

**-Remus Lupin and Sirius Black love each other and you can't convince me otherwise, there will be a lot of wolfstar scenes here.**

**-Finally, English is not my mother tongue therefore you might find some grammar mistakes, I apologize beforehand. **

**Thank you for giving this a try, enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 1.**

Sirius Black was happy and miserable at the same time and he couldn't understand how that was possible.

He was having tea with Remus and James, they were celebrating lots of things, first of all the Potters were inaugurating their house in muggle London. Lily was sick and tired of people calling her baby "the boy who lived" so she and James decided to buy a house in a nice muggle neighborhood. Second, they were extremely happy because Sirius was finally free. He spent three months in Azkaban, the worst three months of his life, and now he was free and ready to claim his family fortune, not because he wanted it but because he needed it.

He didn't want to abuse from Lily and James's kindness.

"Why the long face, Padfoot?" James asked grinning "you're free! We'll make you Harry's godfather again in no time and now you can claim your fortune."

Sirius sighed, when the Ministry sent him to Azkaban he lost all his rights, including Harry's guardianship. So he told Lily and James to assign Remus as soon as possible because they were been followed by Voldemort and they wouldn't take any chances about Harry's safety.

Looking at them he decided that it was time to explain his friends the reason of his distress.

"I went to Gringotts yesterday" he said gloomily "the Globins surprisingly apologized for my time in Azkaban and assured me that my fortune was intact and since I'm the last one of my family everything, including the properties and the vaults, belongs to me now."

Remus frowned and James smiled.

"Then, why are you so bitter?" Remus asked confused.

Sirius smirked.

"Unfortunately the Ministry has frozen my funds" He said "they can't touch my gold but unless I prove them that my fortune is going to be use for something useful they won't let me use it."

"Can they do that? Something useful? Like what?" James asked dumbfounded.

"Well apparently our useless Minister of Magic passed a law in which ex-convicts must be under probation when it comes to money and that stuff so he is only giving me two choices, either I invest some of my money in their politics or..."

"Or what? Padfoot?"

Sirius smiled at him.

"Or I get myself an heir."

Remus spit the tea he was drinking while James's eyes widened.

_"WHAT?!"_ They both asked with widened eyes at the same time.

Sirius shrugged pretending to be unaffected by it.

"They want to make sure that the Black fortune we'll be well spent, I guess that investing in the future generations is a good choice."

James couldn't speak.

"What in Merlin's name are you talking about?! Are you going to go out and get a wife?!" Remus asked shocked.

Sirius laughed.

"My dear Moony that would be impossible, there is no woman capable of winning my heart." Sirius said dramatically.

"Then?"

"I'll go to a muggle orphanage tomorrow and I'll adopt a child." Sirius said smiling.

It was too much information to handle at the moment so Remus and James exchanged a look of pure shock.

"ARE YOU MENTAL?!" Remus asked finally.

* * *

_Yes, Sirius was crazy. _

That was the only thing that was going through James's mind at the moment but of course he would support him. That's why he was in muggle London with Sirius and Harry without telling Lily about Sirius's plan because she wouldn't approve, Remus didn't approve either so he decided to give cold treatment to Sirius expecting him to realize why this was a terrible idea, unfortunately that didn't work.

"Remind me again why it has to be a muggle child" James said as he watched Harry approaching some of the orphans with curiosity.

"Well, I believe that they gave me those choices so I would give them my money, because let's be honest I'm not a parental figure, but can you imagine Fudge's face when he realizes that the Black fortune will belong to a muggle?!"

James shrugged.

"I'm not sure Padfoot, I mean..."

Sirius cut him before he could continue.

"Listen I know that I'm not ready for parenthood but I won't let them control me, not again."

James sighed. He knew that Sirius was bloody afraid of Dementors, he also knew how bad he wanted to be Harry's godfather and after his time in Azkaban the guardianship was taken away, he resented the Ministry in every single way, he just wasn't sure that this was the best way to take revenge.

Unfortunately he couldn't hex him to make him come back to his senses and perhaps a child could help him to start thinking about other things besides his time in Azkaban. There was also something funny about the Ministry going crazy after finding out that one of the most ancient pureblood house's fortunes would belong to a muggle. Sighing, James left Sirius to go and see the kids by his own.

The orphanage was an old looking house with several rooms, a big backyard and a playroom, Sirius walked straight to the backyard.

He couldn't help but think that he was really glad to have a family, even if it was a twisted one, he couldn't imagine his life without his own room, besides knowing where he had come from helped him to become who he was. He wasn't the most responsible person alive but he was quite successful.

Several kids were playing happily, lots with their friends.

One of his would have to be, but he didn't know how to choose. These were kids no pieces of meat for Merlin's sake! His son would have to get along with Harry and watching the kids play he realized that none of them were exactly a good choice. A muggle boy would be jealous about Harry's magic and Sirius wanted to avoid drama.

He groaned, this was a bad idea.

He kept walking until he found a big oak tree with a bench underneath. A little girl was sitting there reading a heavy book, he sat next to her. The girl had a cute face and bushy hair, apparently she didn't notice him.

"Hi" Sirius said carefully.

The girl tensed immediately and looked at him with widened eyes. He wondered if this was her reaction to every adult.

"Hi" she said with a shy voice, Sirius noticed with amusement her two big front teeth.

"What are you reading?" Sirius asked.

She showed him the cover and he read the title; "Alice in wonderland" Sirius supposed that it was a muggle fairytale.

"Interesting" Sirius said checking the book and then he turned to look at the other children "why aren't you playing with them?" he asked.

The little girl looked away blushing.

"They don't like me" she said sharply.

Sirius frowned.

"Why?"

The little girl shrugged.

"I'm different."

"Because you like to read?" Sirius asked with a smile, she looked completely normal to him.

She was so used to adults coming and going, wanting to adopt her, so she didn't care talking about why she was different with anyone. After all, she knew she would end up getting old in this place.

"Not exactly, but when I'm happy or upset weird things happen. That's why no one wants to adopt me" she explained "they say that I'm a freak and that maybe that's the reason why my parents left me here."

Sirius contemplated the girl for moment. Could it be possible that this girl was a muggleborn? If that was the case the decision was easier, he was going to adopt the child in a magical way which would make her his child even in blood and if she really was a muggleborn that would mean that she had already a place in Hogwarts.

"What's your name?" Sirius asked.

"Hermione" She said "what's yours?"

"I'm Sirius Black."

"A black dog!" She said laughing.

Sirius smirked, the girl was smart.

"How old are you?"

"Four years old." She answered proudly.

Harry's age, it was a perfect choice. The only problem was that well, she was female and he was going to be a single father, a girl was going to be way more complicated than a boy, but he knew that Lily and James were going to help him, no big deal, right?

"Would you like to be adopted?"

Hermione nodded violently.

"It would be great! My own room, no more mean boys and my parents will probably help me to understand what's wrong with me" she said hopefully.

Sirius laughed.

"There's nothing wrong with you, I used to have the same problem when I was little."

"Are you serious?!" She asked.

"Yes, I am." He answered grinning.

Hermione frowned understanding his joke immediately.

"I'm serious." She said.

"Really? So am I." Sirius said.

Hermione couldn't help it so she laughed. It wasn't going to be easy, he knew it, and he wasn't sure that this girl in front of him was a witch but watching the other kids he supposed that she was the best choice, besides he was completely sure that Harry would get jealous if he were to adopt another boy of his age.

"Would you like to be my daughter?" he asked.

Hermione looked at him startled. Was she dreaming? She couldn't remember her parents, all she knew was that she was left like a milk bottle in the doorsteps of this awful place and after years of waiting finally someone wanted to give her a place to call home.

"Are you sure?" She asked.

Sirius shrugged.

"Well, you need a family and I need a daughter, I have enough space in my house for both of us, even a pet if you want."

She bit her bottom lip.

"I... I can make things move and if I get too upset I break things like dishes." She explained worriedly.

"In that case we may have more in common than you believe." Sirius said winking at her.

Hermione was beaming.

"So, what do you say?" Sirius said while standing up to face her "would you like to be my daughter?" he asked bowing slightly.

Hermione couldn't find her voice so she threw her arms around his neck and started to cry.

"Then it's settled." He said patting her back.

* * *

When Miss Olga saw Hermione for the first time she decided that she was a lost cause, she just didn't fit with the other kids and when she read her file it became a fact that Hermione was a weird girl. That was the reason why she couldn't hide her surprise when a handsome young man came to her asking for the papers to adopt her.

"I believe that I heard you wrong Mister...?"

"Black, Sirius Black" the handsome man answered her smiling.

Miss Olga was an old lady with a serious dislike for children, how she became the responsible of an orphanage? No one knew. They were at her office, Sirius and Hermione were sitting in two really uncomfortable chairs in front of her horrible desk.

"You'll see Mister Black, Hermione is special" the old woman said with a sneer.

Hermione blushed with fury and frowned at the older woman.

"Her roommates have complained several times, she's sort of a troublemaker."

Hermione looked down at her hands on her lap and Sirius smiled.

"I was quite a troublemaker at my school days too, Ma'am."

The older woman blushed under his smile.

"Well, Mister Black I would like to know, is your wife willing to adopt a child she's never seen?"

Sirius laughed.

"I'm single Ma'am."

Hermione wasn't surprised, she figured that much when she saw him alone.

"Well Mister Black, you are a young good looking man, you still have time to..."

"With all due respect Ma'am, I really want to adopt this girl" Sirius said with a tone that suggested that he wasn't going to listen to any of the woman's advice. It wasn't as if this woman could understand that finding a magical child in a muggle orphanage of all places was extremely weird and a chance that Sirius wouldn't miss.

Miss Olga frowned but before she could say anything another kid entered the office followed by another young handsome man, she wondered what was happening with the young ones, why would anyone want to adopt an unknown child with all the possibilities of having some of their own?

"Hey Padfoot! Are you...?" James couldn't keep talking after stepping into the office. His eyes widened, there was a huge wave of magic flowing all over the place. Was Harry going to have an outburst?

When Harry saw Sirius with a little girl next to him in an ugly office he couldn't contain his curiosity, he approached her immediately.

"Who are you?" Harry asked to the bushy haired girl. Despite of Neville comments he didn't believe that girls had cooties, quite the opposite, he found them really funny and sometimes cute but of course he wouldn't tell anyone about that. This girl felt quite different, what was it?

"My name is Hermione" she answered looking at him with equal curiosity "who are you?"

"I'm Harry" he said smiling and she smiled back.

"Prongs, is something wrong?" Sirius asked frowning after seeing James's expression.

"Don't you feel it?" James asked.

Sirius tried to focus on whatever had his best friend acting like that and then he noticed it was magic, all over the place, who? Looking down at the two kids he realized that the magic was coming from both of them. So, he was right.

"Are you going to adopt her uncle Sirius?!" Harry asked with a smile.

"Yes pup."

Harry beamed.

"He's your uncle? So, we'll be cousins?" Hermione asked.

Harry shook his head.

"We're not blood related, he's my dad's best friend so we'll be" Harry seemed to ponder it for a minute "best friends!"

Hermione's smile couldn't get any wider.

"Where's your room?" Harry asked suddenly.

"Upstairs, why?" she asked confused.

"I'll help you to get your stuff" He said and taking her hand they both started to run outside the little and ugly office.

Sirius and James couldn't ignore the powerful rush of magic leaving the room but they could swear that it intensified when the kids held hands.

Sirius cleared his throat.

"So Ma'am about the adoption papers..."

* * *

Hermione couldn't believe it, she woke up with no hopes of change and now she had a father and a best friend, she had to be dreaming. She didn't have too many things in her room, she decided to take her book, another silly old dress and her personal items, she just put everything in her little bag and went downstairs holding Harry's hand, Hermione tried really hard to ignore all the stares of the other kids. She didn't blame them, it wasn't everyday she would go running around with a boy holding her hand.

"You're going to love home" Harry promised her.

And she really hoped so.

* * *

Lily Potter knew something was wrong the moment she got home to find her son laughing at something on the TV with a little girl she didn't know by his side. Considering how she hadn't see her before she got to the conclusion that she was a muggle from their neighborhood, perhaps.

"Mum!" Harry said running straight to his mum to hug her.

Lily smiled at him and kissed his forehead.

"Hi honey I missed you! Who's your friend?" she asked him kindly.

The little girl was blushing madly while looking at her with widened eyes.

"Mum this is Hermione! Uncle Padfoot's new daughter." Harry said.

Lily's mouth dropped open. Sirius Black with a daughter?! Her mind was running miles per second, when? How? _Why?_

"Nice to meet you, Miss Potter" the little girl said offering her hand to the beautiful redhead in front of her. Her blush was the worst.

Lily took a good look at the girl, she had bushy long hair and a pretty face. She was thin and she was wearing a cute old dress. The witch smiled warmly at her.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Hermione." Lily said shaking her hand.

She was going to kill the marauders.

* * *

"YOU ADOPTED A CHILD TO PISS OFF FUDGE?!" Lily yelled outraged. She had left them alone for a day, a single day and suddenly there was a little girl in the living room.

James and Sirius winced, they didn't imagine that Lily would find out so soon, it was a good thing that they were using a privacy charm, otherwise the children in the living room would hear everything.

"Lily, the girl needed a home" Sirius excused himself.

Lily couldn't believe it, she was seeing red. That was the most ridiculous argument ever. It wasn't as if Hermione was a puppy for Merlin's sake.

"Yes Sirius, a home with a mother and a father who would want her for what she represents! A daughter! Not a bloody way to show how much of an anarchist you are!"

Sirius sighed heavily.

"Lily, she'll be officially my daughter when I take her to Gringotts tomorrow."

Lily sighed, this was taking her nowhere. He wasn't going to hear her and besides everything was done, they just couldn't go back to the orphanage and leave the little girl again.

"Are you really going to raise her?" she asked finally.

Sirius nodded.

"You'll make sure that she never finds out about the true reason of her adoption." Lily said.

Sirius nodded again.

"Do you have any idea of how to raise a child?" she asked with a heavy sigh.

Sirius simply shrugged and James chuckled.

* * *

"What are you doing here?" An annoyed Remus Lupin asked.

"Would you let me in? This is important." Sirius answered nervously.

For some reason, both men felt like they were seeing an ex-lover. Lupin let Sirius in without further comments, the werewolf thought that this was going to be an easy conversation like always but the moment Sirius took a step inside he hugged him.

"SIRIUS! It's okay! Let's go to the living room" Remus said awkwardly.

When they sat down facing each other Sirius took a deep breath.

"I need your help."

Remus raised an eyebrow at him.

"I know you're mad with me because you warned me that adopting a child would be a bad idea but..."

"But you're stubborn and I believe that you didn't listen to me."

"No, I didn't" Sirius admitted.

Remus groaned out of frustration.

"Seriously Sirius?!"

The last heir of the house of Black grinned mischievously.

"My dear Moony but that's not why I'm here, we're parents now and you're going to move in with me." Sirius said.

"We're what?!" Remus asked indignantly.

"Our beautiful daughter goes by the name of Hermione, after the adoption she got my hair and obviously your brown eyes."

"Sirius stop right there! You adopted a girl?!"

"She's a really independent child I must say because for the last three days she's been making all the meals."

"She has been doing what?! What about Kreacher?!" Remus asked.

"Kreacher can't stand her, I had to punish him after he called her a mudblood."

"Mudblood?" he asked with widened eyes "but I thought that you were going to adopt a muggle child."

"Oh, I went to a muggle orphanage but apparently I'm so lucky that I ended up finding a little muggleborn witch" Sirius explained "explaining the magical world to her has been difficult because she's extremely skeptical and also pretty smart for someone her age."

Remus just looked at him with disbelief. Lots of things were running through his mind, Sirius Black adopted a girl, a muggleborn girl. He was sure that Sirius was going crazy and he couldn't blame him after being in Azkaban so many months, still he tried to tell him how this was a bad idea, a horrible idea, Sirius wasn't ready for a child and Grimmauld place wasn't the best place for a little girl to grow up.

"And what makes you think that I'll go and live with you?" Remus asked.

It was a risky question, after Sirius left Azkaban they hadn't talk about their relationship but the fact that Sirius was offering raising a child together made him believe that he hadn't give up on their future together. Remus didn't know how to feel about that.

Sirius didn't answer, he just stood there looking everywhere, Remus was starting to feel annoyed.

"Grimmauld place looks way better than this."

Remus laughed hard.

"Do you expect me to believe that?!"

Sirius nodded.

"She's terrified of dark places, since she got there she's been cleaning along with a reluctant Kreacher and everything looks brighter. I tried to stop her but she's stubborn."

"How old is she?" Remus asked.

"Four years old."

Remus's eyes widened.

"Are you really that stupid?!"

"What do you mean?" Sirius asked frowning.

"She has the same age as Harry! If the Ministry finds out they'll think that you're planning to link two of the most powerful families."

Sirius couldn't help but laugh. Moony was completely right! He didn't think about it and he was against marriage contracts but his friendship with the Potters wasn't a secret. For now, no one knew that Sirius had a daughter but it was a matter of time, the girl needed new clothes, Sirius saw her face when she saw the Black library so he was planning on buying her new books too, a trip to Diagon Alley was going to be necessary.

Hell would break loose.

"Sirius would you stop smiling?! You're creeping me out!" Remus said exasperated.

"We shouldn't worry about that for now, just go upstairs and pack your clothes. We'll send Kreacher for everything else later."

"Why do you want me to move in with you?!"

"Because we don't know how to raise a child and we're going to figure it out together."

Remus sighed, he couldn't leave Sirius alone for this.

* * *

**Thanks for reading. **

**Review? **


	2. Chapter 2

**This is like an introductory chapter for several characters, I hope you like it.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 2.**

Remus Lupin was drinking coffee.

It had been six months ever since he moved into Grimmauld Place with Sirius and Hermione, and he was feeling at ease. At first he thought that living with Sirius and with a four year old girl was going to be chaotic but it wasn't, in fact it was amusing in its own way.

Hermione was amazing and polite, she liked to read more than anything else and he couldn't help but wonder why anyone would leave a child like her in an orphanage, it didn't make sense. According to what she told him she couldn't remember her parents at all, the old lady at the orphanage had told her that she was left there when she was nothing but a baby.

He didn't touch the subject after that, there was no point, besides he could tell she was happy with her new life. After the adoption at Gringotts she "inherited" a few things from Sirius, the first thing that changed was her hair, just as Sirius said, her hair which at first was brown and bushy now fell in messy waves down her back and it was black. She expressed how grateful she was for that, apparently she didn't like her hair before.

Sirius also said that he could see how her nose changed a little but she didn't agree, Remus couldn't actually tell so he held back his comments.

"Dad." Hermione said taking him by surprise.

"What is it?" He asked while putting down his coffee mug.

She smiled at him.

"You were staring blankly at the wall" she said "I was just wondering if you were okay."

He nodded.

"I was just distracted." He said.

"You should be distracted because of my beauty and my beauty only." Sirius said stepping into the dining room.

Remus rolled his eyes.

After moving with them Hermione didn't hesitate in calling both of them "dad" and while he wasn't bothered by it he wasn't used to it yet. Not to mention that while he and Sirius were a couple now they hadn't talked too much about their relationship.

Sirius insisted that it wasn't necessary.

Apparently, the Black heir, considered that sharing a bed and having a daughter gave them all the stability and seriousness of a married couple.

Remus didn't object to that.

"What were you thinking about?" Sirius asked while taking a seat next to him and pouring coffee for himself.

"Nothing important" Remus lied "and what are you doing here? Aren't you late for work?"

Sirius shrugged.

"They can wait for me for an hour or so" he said "besides, since these are peaceful times there's nothing to do out there for the Aurors, except for the patrolling and I don't like to patrol, thanks ever so."

It was then when Kreacher appeared next to Sirius.

Remus couldn't help but notice how Hermione frowned at the sight of him, they never got along quite well. The elf handed the newspaper to Sirius and left the room without a second glance at the little girl.

Sirius opened it and spit the coffee he was drinking all over the table.

"Dad!" Hermione gasped while Remus frowned at him.

"Please Sirius" he said while waving his wand and cleaning the mess "what's the matter with you?"

Sirius didn't answer him, instead he kept reading the newspaper with widened eyes.

"Is everything okay?" Hermione asked.

"Well" Sirius said finally after a few seconds "this isn't exactly bad news but you might want to read it first."

Hermione frowned and grabbed the newspaper, with careful hands she spread it on the table so Remus could also read it. He frowned at the title.

_War hero gets into the most dangerous battlefield: _

_Parenthood. _

_Yes, you read that right. Apparently, war hero and former bachelor Sirius Black has a daughter. Two of our reporters catch a glimpse of Lord Black at Diagon Alley and he wasn't alone, a little girl, who cannot be older than five years old, was with him. _

_This came as a huge surprise because while the child was adorable we couldn't help but wonder, is she really Sirius Black's daughter? And if that's the case, who's the mother? Or could it be that she's adopted? Where, in Merlin's name, did she come from? _

_Unfortunately we couldn't approach him to ask all of these questions but after seeing him buying books and clothes for the little girl we were left with no doubts. _

_Sirius Black has gotten himself an heiress. _

_As you can see in the picture they look like real father and daughter, we can tell that he's going to spoil her a lot. _

_What a lucky girl!_

_She might need a stepmother so keep an eye open, single ladies!_

Remus observed the picture that was next to the article. Sirius and Hermione were laughing as she was pointing to one of the stores around Diagon Alley, it was a nice picture.

"Why is our picture on the front page?!" Hermione asked surprised.

"Well, I already explained" Sirius said while casually pouring himself another cup of coffee "after the war we sort of became famous, well Prongs was already famous."

"You were too" Remus said "because of your last name and all."

Hermione gulped.

"Well, everyone will probably forget about this in one week or so, right?" She asked.

Sirius raised an eyebrow at her.

"I'm guessing that you don't like to be on the spotlight." He said.

Hermione shrugged.

"Well, I don't like to call anyone's unnecessary attention and besides, what if some women start to look for you? They might take the stepmother comment quite seriously."

Remus found amusing how worried she looked at that.

"Hey" Sirius said "there's no woman out there that can compare to your mother."

"My mother?" Hermione asked clearly confused.

"Yes" Sirius said and then pointed at Remus "I'm already in love with her."

Hermione chuckled and Remus frowned at Sirius.

"You're lucky I actually like you." Remus said and Sirius winked at him.

* * *

Fudge wasn't a happy Minister of magic. Months ago he plotted along with other people at the Ministry to get full control of the Black vaults and he was about to achieve it, unfortunately Sirius Black was set free some time later. Fudge didn't think that was a problem, quite the contrary, with Sirius Black having to fix his life before touching his money, getting his gold was going to be a piece of cake. He gave the pureblood two bloody options knowing he would never adopt a freaking child but after he saw the picture on the prophet of Sirius Black shopping with his new "daughter" he swore he was getting mad.

That was the reason why he was here now, in front of the Potter's residence, the Black house was under the fidelius charm after all, and he knew Sirius Black was in here most of the time.

He knocked three times the door.

"Dad! The guy you called a bloody arsehole yesterday is at the front door!"

_A bloody what?!_ Fudge looked up only to find a little boy with spectacles smirking at him from a window on the second floor. Harry Potter, the boy who lived.

"Harry don't! Lily I swear I didn't use those words in front of the kids!" Fudge heard James Potter yelling from inside the house.

"He did mum! Hermione heard him too!"

_Hermione._

That was the name of the little girl that Sirius Black adopted.

"I'll forbid you to grab the broom again!" James Potter yelled at his son.

Lily Potter opened the door.

"Can I help you, Minister?" She asked.

"Yes Miss Potter, my apologies I do not wish to intrude but I'm looking for Sirius Black."

"And what makes you think he might be here?"

Fudge wasn't expecting hostility from the beautiful redhead in front of him but apparently this wasn't his day.

"Miss Potter I need to talk about something really important with Lord Black."

Lily frowned and Fudge could see anger flashing through her gorgeous green eyes. She took a step outside and closed the door behind her, for a second Fudge thought that coming without a bodyguard was a mistake, after all, Lily Potter was known to be a force to be reckoned with.

"Let's be clear Minister, you're not welcome in my house and I don't think Sirius wants to talk with you, so anything you want to tell him, I'll let him know."

Fudge took a deep breath. He knew he made a huge mistake trying to control Black, but now even the Potters were against him. Two ancient and important houses, this wasn't acceptable.

"Is it true that Sirius Black has a daughter?" He asked suddenly, he just wanted to know after all.

"You read and control "The Prophet" Minister we both know you already know the answer."

"Miss Lily please, I need to see the child."

"You won't see that child Minister, as far as I know the Ministry has not saying in the decisions that wizards or witches take concerning their families."

She was right, the Ministry couldn't interfere in purebloods family business.

"Minister, if you ever try to do anything against that kid you'll regret it. My family is living in a muggle neighborhood thanks to all the press talking about how my baby defeated the pureblood maniac and the Ministry didn't do anything to protect him, I won't let you go near any of these two kids."

"Are you threating me Miss Potter?"

"Take it as you want Minister, have a nice day."

* * *

"I still cannot believe Sirius Black has a daughter." A redhead woman was saying while cooking.

"I saw it on The Prophet, the women at the Ministry couldn't stop talking about the picture." Arthur Weasley said "apparently it's been quite some time he adopted her."

"Who would think that Sirius was going to be a father?" Molly Weasley said smiling "but it's charming, he bought her lots of books and clothes, he looked really happy."

A little redhead girl frowned.

"Why would he buy lots of new things to a girl that isn't his daughter?"

"Ginny she's his daughter, he adopted her" Molly said calmly "we'll probably meet her at the next Order meeting."

She frowned deeper, she didn't understand.

"Wait" Another little boy said "Sirius Black? Isn't he related to Harry Potter?"

"No Ron, he isn't, although he's the best friend of Harry's dad."

"Oh, I see." Ron said.

"Wait" Ginny said. "So that girl gets to spend time with Harry Potter?"

Molly nodded distracted.

"Yes, I think so."

Ginny frowned, she didn't like how that sounded.

* * *

"You look tense." Harry said to Hermione.

They were in her room waiting for the Order meeting to start. Children weren't allowed to be present but they still had to greet everyone, it was Hermione's first meeting and she was feeling a little anxious.

Ever since they met each other they became inseparable, they were also going together to a muggle school because Harry's mom thought that it would be good for them before going to Hogwarts, so they were spending most of their days together, Hermione couldn't imagine a better friend that Harry. Harry used to tell her how the feeling was mutual quite often.

She shrugged.

"It's just, what if they don't like me?" she asked "you said that some kids were coming and I already told you that I'm not that good at making friends."

"You're worrying over nothing" Harry told her "you're not at the orphanage anymore and besides, Neville is coming and he is really nice, mum is his godmother."

Hermione nodded.

Harry used to mention Neville quite often.

"Who else is coming?" She asked.

"The Weasleys." He said "although I don't know them either."

Hermione sighed, she heard a little bit about the Weasleys but the fact that they had a little girl about her age made her anxious, she didn't get along well with girls.

Harry took her hand.

"Come on" he said "we should eat something before the other arrive and once I introduce you to Neville you'll feel better."

She nodded and squeezed his hand before running downstairs with him.

* * *

"That bloody arsehole" Sirius muttered after Lily ended up telling them about the Minister's visit.

"You both need to stop talking like that" Lily said seriously to James and Sirius "Harry literally called Fudge that."

Sirius smirked.

"Please tell me that our useless Minister heard him." He said.

"He did." James said proudly and Sirius and Remus chuckled.

"I love the pup with all my heart." Sirius said while putting his hand over his heart dramatically.

That's when both kids came downstairs.

Lily smiled at the sight of Harry holding Hermione's hand.

At first she thought that Sirius had taken a bad decision concerning the adoption but as time moved forward she couldn't help but get attached to the little girl, she was charming and smart. The fact that she and Harry got along so well in so little time made everything better and she could tell that James agreed with her.

Ever since Harry and Hermione became best friends both kids kept going from the Potter's house to Grimmauld place quite often, Hermione had her own room back at the Potter's house because sometimes it was impossible to make her and Harry to stop playing so they decided that it was for the best.

"Pup" a smirking Sirius said to Harry "is it true that you insulted the Minister of Magic?"

Harry gulped and looked at Hermione who was looking at him questioningly.

"Well, yeah." Harry said after a few seconds.

"Come here pup, you deserve a cookie." Sirius said while walking towards the kitchen and ignoring Lily's frown.

Both kids followed him smiling.

* * *

Just as Harry predicted Hermione's worries faded away when the meeting started, everyone was nice and she felt at ease. Alice Longbottom and Molly Weasley complimented her over her dress and her cute face. The only children who showed were Ron Weasley and Neville Longbottom, Hermione liked them both almost instantly, she didn't say it but the fact that no other girl showed up made her relax a little, her experiences with girls back at the orphanage were still fresh on her mind.

"If you ever feel like getting out of Grimmauld place send me a letter dear." Molly Weasley said "I want you to meet The Burrow."

Hermione was blushing madly.

"Thanks Ma'am."

After the introductions were over she excused herself and went to her room along with the boys.

"You have a nice room." Ron said once she saw it "Ginny would've loved it."

"Thanks" she said smiling "Who's Ginny?"

"My little sister, she decided to stay at home today with my other brothers."

Later she learned that Ron had quite a big family, while Neville just like Harry was an only son. Ron taught them how to play exploding snap and they shared lots of chocolate frogs. Hermione was glad that she had new friends.

* * *

The Order meeting started the moment Dumbledore took a seat at the table.

"Well, it seems that everyone is here." Dumbledore said with a fond smile on his face.

Frank and Alice Longbottom, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, Lily and James Potter, Minerva McGonagall, Molly and Arthur Weasley were present. Severus Snape wouldn't be in the meeting, he had to attend some "personal matters" according to Dumbledore.

"I'm glad to see you all, it makes me truly happy to see how well you have recovered after the war."

Frank and Alice were holding hands under the table, they smiled at each other.

"I'm impressed" Minerva McGonagall said amused. "I still remember each one of you running around the Hogwarts Grounds and now you have families." She looked at Sirius after she said this.

He moved uneasily on his seat.

"Tell me Mr. Black, what possessed you to adopt a child?" She asked with a wry grin.

Everyone turned to look with curious eyes at Sirius while Lily gave him a warning look. It wasn't that they couldn't trust the Order, but the less the people knew the better for Hermione.

"Well" he said smiling "the moment I saw her I knew that she was going to be my daughter."

"Really? Why?" Molly asked smiling brightly.

"Well I don't really know how to explain." Sirius said and it wasn't a lie basically, he didn't know how to explain that the Ministry was blackmailing him and that taking care of a child was the only way to get his life back, besides it was wrong, he really loved Hermione. It took him a while to get used to her at first but she was his daughter after all.

"I would call it paternal instinct" James chimed in "he just sat on a bench next to her and they started to talk right away, like daughter and father. It was quite a view."

Sirius gave a thankful smile to James.

"That's so sweet." Molly said.

Remus wanted to groan, McGonagall wasn't going to believe them. They were great liars, the only problem was that McGonagall knew them too well and judging by her frown he was right, she doubted their story completely.

"How is she copping the magical world?" Dumbledore asked.

"What do you mean?" Sirius asked genuinely confused.

"Well she's muggle." Arthur said.

"No" Sirius said shaking his head "she's magical."

Dumbledore raised his eyebrows, surprised.

"She's wonderful Sirius" Alice said sincerely "and really pretty, I can already see the tons of wizards that are going to be after her at Hogwarts when she's older."

Sirius looked like if he just bit something really bitter and Frank couldn't help but laugh along with James and Remus.

* * *

"You know, I thought that you would start inviting boys to your bedroom until you were older." Sirius said with a smile.

Hermione looked up from her book blushing. She was with Remus and Sirius in the living room, enjoying the warmth of the fireplace, she loved snow but she hated to feel so cold. The meeting ended two hours ago and they were the only ones left inside the house.

"We just talked." She sad pouting.

"So, did you like them?" Remus asked with a smile, considering how their circle of friends wasn't so extensive Hermione didn't know a lot of children of her age. Remus was worried about how her friends were all male, sure they were good kids, but he thought that it would be healthy for Hermione to get along with girls too, still she was too young so he pushed that worry at the back of his head.

"Yeah, I guess." She said and went back to her book.

Remus exchanged a look with Sirius.

"What are you reading?" Sirius asked "wait, isn't that…? You should be reading _"The tales of Beedle the bard"_ not that!"

She smirked and ran upstairs before Sirius could take the book out of her hands, it wasn't her fault that the best books were slightly dark, the Black library was awesome after all.

* * *

"Cissa dear" An important looking man said "why are you frowning at the newspaper?"

"Lucius" Narcissa Malfoy said "I'm awfully curious, can you believe that there's a new member in the House of Black?"

Lucius Malfoy couldn't help the surprise so he grabbed the newspaper his wife was offering.

"I see, how is it possible?"

"I'm not sure" Narcissa Malfoy answered with a smile "but I think that it's time for me to visit my dear cousin Sirius."

* * *

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	3. Chapter 3

**I already mentioned that I love the Malfoys, right? **

**Enjoy your reading. **

* * *

**Chapter 3.**

Diagon Alley.

When Hermione first stepped into Diagon Alley she couldn't hide the surprise from her face, it was so magical, full of interesting stores and people, her eyes widened in awe and she could still remember how Sirius smiled at her assuring her that they would have enough time to visit every single store, that was on the day of her adoption and even now, six months later, she was still surprised by the whole place.

The difference was that today she was walking along with Harry and Lily Potter.

Harry had been insisting the whole week about how bad he wanted to see the new brooms and he insisted that Hermione needed to come to. Considering how she loved Diagon Alley she didn't refuse, besides she loved spending time with Harry and even if she didn't like brooms, she could tolerate a trip to the store.

"You know Aunt Lily won't buy you a broom yet, don't you?" Hermione asked him once he started to see all the brooms inside the shop "not even Uncle James could convinced her."

Harry smirked at her.

"It's okay" he said and pointed at his mother who was talking with another witch "dad gave me money for a training broom, I'll go and buy it quickly before she notices."

Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Harry" she insisted "all Aunt Lily will have to do is to return it, Uncle James will get into trouble."

Harry grabbed her hand.

"Don't worry about it" he told her and dragged her towards the training brooms.

Hermione sighed but smiled at the sight of Harry. It was funny to see him so excited to see all the brooms, she knew how bad he wanted to learn to ride one, although she didn't understand it, she had seen Uncle James trying to teach him and all she could think of was how glad she was that those weren't an obligatory method of transportation in the wizarding world. She was afraid of heights after all.

"That one!" Harry said and let go off her hand to grab a broom.

It was small and a little bit curvy at the tip, she read the product description. Apparently it was for kids under ten years old and it had all of the safety charms, it also said that it was immune to outside sources of magic that could want to make it malfunction. Her eyes widened, that was interesting information.

Harry grabbed the broom and his smile faded when he noticed another boy grabbing it at the same time.

"Sorry" Harry said politely "but I saw it first."

Hermione looked at the boy, he was pale with grey eyes and a pointy nose. She frowned at his rude scowl.

"No" the boy said "I've been looking for this broom for a long time, I think I'll take it."

Both Harry and the boy refused to let go off the broom.

Hermione sighed.

This was going to be a problem.

* * *

Lily let Harry and Hermione roam freely through the store as she spoke with the manager. She knew that James had convinced Harry to buy the broom even after she insisted that he didn't need it, he couldn't use it at house so it was better for him to wait a little longer but the Potters men were really stubborn, she smiled fondly at that thought.

"You seem to be thinking about something nice" the manager, an old witch with a nice smile, told her.

Lily blushed slightly.

"It's nothing" she said and then looked at the other side of the store "it seems that Harry finally found a broom."

The old lady nodded.

"It looks like it, I'm so glad to see little Harry so happy" she told Lily "we're still recovering from the war but the new generation of witches and wizards give us hope."

Lily smiled at that, it was true that the war shook the world in unimaginable ways but everyone was healing and that was what truly mattered. Sighing she remembered the conversation she had with James before leaving the house.

"_You shouldn't go today" James said hugging Lilly from behind and kissing her neck._

_She sighed. _

"_I promised the kids, Harry wants to see the new brooms and he wants to show them to Hermione, it's just Diagon Alley" Lily said._

"_Still" James insisted "I have a bad feeling."_

_She turned around and placed a chaste kiss on his lips._

"_It'll be okay Mr. Prongs" she said sweetly "unless there's something you want to tell me." _

_He sighed and kissed her deeply, somehow she knew something was going to happen. _

She frowned, the Aurors must've been informed about something otherwise James wouldn't have acted so weird, she needed to know what had him so worried.

* * *

"You're tense" James said while taking a seat on Sirius's living room.

"Just like you" Sirius said smirking.

James sighed and ran a hand through his messy hair.

"I always thought that we would be bachelors with our own flat, but look at us, already worrying over our children…"

"…and wife, in your case" Sirius concluded and James chuckled.

"If you had told Lilly" Remus chimed in "she wouldn't have gone and you wouldn't be panicking."

"I'm not panicking" James said defensively.

"Yet" Sirius said amused.

"Fine" James said finally "but you can't blame when there are Death Eaters roaming freely on the bloody street."

Remus sighed, according to James and Sirius, the Aurors department had been informed about some unknown wizards wearing Death Eater's masks near Diagon Alley. At first, the Ministry tried to ignore the whole thing considering it nothing but a prank, but after a couple was violently mugged they decided to take precautions while waiting to break the news to the public.

"I agree with you" Sirius said "fortunately unless one of them is fucking suicidal they won't do anything, besides their psychopath leader is gone for good so let's try to calm down and Lilly and the kids will be back before you notice."

Remus's eyes widened.

"The fact that you are the voice of reason right now it's giving me chills."

Sirius pretended to be hurt.

"I thought that I always gave you chills, especially because I'm extremely handsome."

James snorted.

"Handsome? Right, I must say Hermione is quite lucky she didn't inherit your ugly nose."

Sirius threw quite forcibly the first thing he found, which happened to be a cup of tea, at James. The black haired man laughed while making it disappear with a flick of his wand.

* * *

"So" Hermione said "we've been like this for ten minutes already, one of you have to let go off the broom."

"I grabbed it first" Harry said stubbornly "he is the one who should let it go."

"I'm not going to!" the blonde one insisted and then smirked "leave it to me or I'll make you."

Hermione was about to tell him how threatening was tacky when the boy used his free hand to look for something inside his pockets, it was a wand but it looked different from the ones she had seen before, her eyes widened in realization and she gasped.

"Is that a training wand?!" She asked, her eyes shining with curiosity.

The blonde boy nodded and smirked smugly.

"Father bought it for me" he said proudly "these are not easy to get."

"Oh I know!" Hermione said unaffected by the boy's smug attitude "I've been begging dad for one but he says that paperwork is too troublesome for him, he hates it."

"Paperwork? So he knows how to get one? Does he work in the Ministry?" the blonde boy asked curiously.

Hermione nodded but didn't say anything else and Harry noticed how her expression changed, she wanted to use the wand badly.

"Lend it to me!" Hermione said suddenly grabbing the boy's hand without hesitation "I just want to try one spell, please."

"No" the boy answered and noticed how he was trapped.

Harry was still holding the broom so he couldn't let go off that, while Hermione wasn't letting go off his hand.

"Come on!" Hermione insisted excitedly "I promise to give it back immediately."

"I don't even know you" the boy said rudely.

"My name's Hermione, Hermione Black" She said smiling widely at him "nice to meet you."

Harry noticed how the boy's eyes widened.

"You're my cousin!" He said surprised "I'm Draco, Draco Malfoy."

Hermione gasped happily.

"Oh! I've read your name on the family tree! Well, it's really nice to meet you, this is Harry Potter, my best friend."

Draco looked at him questioningly.

"Do you really have the scar?" He asked quickly.

Harry nodded.

"I do, why?"

"I want to see it!"

"Sure" Harry answered smirking "just let Hermione try the wand, and let me have this broom, then I can show it to you."

Draco frowned.

"How about I let her try the wand and you show me the scar, it's only fair."

Harry shook his head and now none of the children were letting go, Hermione was thinking hard in offering Draco a better deal but it was then when a blonde, elegant witch approached them, it wasn't hard to realize that this was Draco's mother, she had heard about her too, Narcissa Malfoy.

Hermione gaped at the sight of her and blushed slightly.

She was gorgeous.

"Draco, dear" she said and Hermione thought that her voice sounded like silk "what are you doing?"

"Mother" Draco said and he sounded relieved "help me, she wants my wand and he wants my broom!"

Narcissa simply looked at the three children and when she saw Hermione her eyes widened.

"Oh" she said and smiled sweetly "I've been dying to meet you, Hermione."

She blushed.

"Nice to meet you, ma'am" Hermione said but still refused to let go off Draco's hand "do you know who I am?"

Narcissa chuckled and kneeled down so she could be at her height.

"There's no need to be so formal, dear and of course I know who you are, although Sirius is extremely rude, I thought that he would invite me to meet my niece" she said and then she patted Hermione on the head "why don't you join me and Draco? I'll treat you to ice cream."

Hermione beamed at the prospect of chatting with her aunt.

"Oh" she said "your invitation makes me extremely happy but I must refuse, I'm here with Harry and Aunt Lily."

Narcissa then looked at Harry and smiled at him.

"Why don't you join us too then?" she asked him politely "you and Draco seem to be getting quite well."

Both boys exchanged an incredulous look.

"I don't know…" Harry said unsure.

"Oh there you are" someone said and everyone turned to look at the owner of the voice "Harry, what are you doing?"

"Mum" he said desperately "he wants my broom!"

Lily sighed.

"Harry, that's not yours" she said and then looked at Narcissa "I'm sorry if they caused you trouble, Miss Malfoy."

Narcissa stood up.

"Not at all, and I already told you to call me Narcissa, Lady Potter" she said.

"Then you can call me Lily, please"

Narcissa nodded.

"This is a pleasant surprise, I've been dying to meet Hermione for a while, I even wrote to Sirius but I never got an answer."

Hermione frowned at that, his father never told her how Narcissa wanted to meet her.

"He was probably scared" Lily answered with a smile and Narcissa rolled her eyes.

"I figured that much" she said amused "my cousin will never change."

Lily had to agree with that.

"Well" Narcissa said finally "since you're here, I was saying to Hermione how I would like to treat her to dessert, if it's okay with you."

Lily looked at Hermione who was looking at Narcissa with awe.

"You can come with us too, of course" Narcissa said to Lily.

"Sure" Lily answer "we'd love to."

Draco and Harry exchanged confused glances while Hermione smiled.

* * *

A hooded man was sneaking through the alleys while trying to avoid uninvited attention, he had a goal in mind, a goal that was going to send him to Azkaban but that wouldn't stop him. It was all about revenge and that was the only thing that mattered to him.

* * *

Harry and Draco were sulking while eating ice cream.

In the end they were both forced to leave the broom, apparently Draco wasn't allowed to have one either, Hermione found that extremely funny. The owner of the ice cream shop was clearly surprised at seeing Narcissa Malfoy and Lily Potter together, he stuttered the whole time while taking their order.

"So" Narcissa commented casually "apparently Harry and Draco have a lot of things in common."

Both boys frowned.

"We do not" both answered at the same time and Hermione chuckled.

Lily smiled at that.

"That broom has been quite the hot topic in the house lately" she said "I still don't understand, we do not have the space for him to practice, yet he insists."

"You don't have space?" Draco asked curiously "is your house small?"

"Not exactly" Hermione answered before Harry could "Aunt Lily's house is really big but since it's in a muggle neighborhood the wards won't be able to hide Harry riding a broom really well."

Narcissa looked at Lilly.

"I heard the rumors that the Potters were living in a muggle neighborhood" she commented "I never thought that was true."

Lily shrugged.

"We wanted to avoid the press" she said "we're lucky that "The Prophet" workers are useless on muggle territory."

"Well, I can't blame them" Narcissa said "I don't like them either, but if you're worried about muggles seeing little Harry riding a broom he's always welcome to Malfoy Manor, we have amazing wards and the garden has all the safety charms. I'm pretty sure Draco would be glad to have someone to compete with."

Harry's eyes widened.

"Really?" he asked.

Narcissa nodded.

"Yes" she said and then looked at Hermione "there's also a nice library, I've heard that you like to read."

Hermione nodded.

"I would love to go" she said and then added quickly "but I do not wish to intrude and…"

Narcissa waved her hand dismissively.

"Don't be silly" she said "I would love the female company, God knows I'm always outnumbered by males."

"Oh, I know how that feels" Lily said and then patted Hermione on the head "Hermione here is a blessing, I don't know what I would do without her company, especially when Quidditch matches become heated."

Narcissa nodded solemnly at that.

"So" Draco said "when you go to my house we'll get to race."

Harry nodded smirking.

"And if you go" Draco added looking at Hermione "I'll lend you my training wand."

"Oh, it'll be awesome" she said smiling "I cannot wait to tell dad, you'll both have to practice some spells with me."

Harry and Draco nodded while Lily and Narcissa exchanged amused looks.

* * *

The shopping trip ended as peaceful as Lily predicted, they were saying goodbye to Narcissa and Draco at the apparition point and Lily couldn't help but smile at Hermione who was blushing as the Lady Malfoy kneeled to be at her height and say goodbye to her.

"Don't forget to write to me, dear" she said "if you ever feel like getting out of Grimmauld place just send me a letter."

Hermione nodded.

"Thank you, Ma'am" she said.

"Oh no" Narcissa said "call me Aunt Cissa, please."

Hermione nodded and Narcissa apparated along with her son.

"I liked him" Harry said while taking Hermione's hand "I thought he was a stuck up idiot but I guess that your cousin is not that bad."

Hermione nodded.

It was then when Lily noticed it, there was dark magic near them. She thought about ignoring the annoying presence but it wouldn't do any good, she needed to call the Aurors and take the kids to a safe place.

"Is everything okay, Aunt Lily?" Hermione asked her after seeing her worried expression.

She looked around and noticed how full the street was, even if there was someone there she wouldn't be able to locate the witch or wizard in the middle of the crowd.

"Mum?" Harry asked.

She frowned and grabbed Harry and Hermione by their hands and ran into the nearest store, which happened to be a potion's store and luckily she knew the owner.

"Miss Potter?" the old wizard said "what a surprise I…"

The first bombarda was heard just outside the store and the owner gasped.

Harry and Hermione exchanged a worrisome look and letting go off Lily's they ran towards the shop window to look outside. Harry's eyes widened as he saw a hooded man in the middle of the street, he was wearing a hideous mask that made Harry feel really scared.

"Death Eater" Hermione whispered and Harry gulped.

His father had explained him all about them and that was enough for him to know that he didn't want to see a single one of them ever.

"Miss Potter?" the owner of the shop asked and Lily took a quick decision.

"I'll distract him for a while" she told him "contact the Aurors and keep the kids in here."

The old man nodded and ran towards the back of the store, Lily supposed that he had something there to inform the Ministry about what was happening. She was about to go outside but both Harry and Hermione grabbed her by her robes.

"No!" Hermione said shaking from head to toe "Aunt Lily you cannot go, let's wait for the Aurors!"

Harry nodded agreeing with her.

"Mum!" he said and Lily sighed.

She kneeled next to the kids.

"I have to do this" she said and then hugged them "wait for me here."

* * *

"Well I was looking for the Potter kid but his Mudblood mother will be enough" the Death Eater said once she saw her coming out of the store.

"What does a full grown man want with a little kid?" she asked angrily.

"He killed my master" the Death Eater answered.

"No" Lily said smiling "I was the one who killed him, do you want revenge? Come and get it."

She couldn't recognize the voice, and the horrible mask hid all his features but she wouldn't let the bastard run away. She pointed her wand and threw the first hex, unfortunately he avoided it quickly, some people were watching the fight behind the windows of the shops while other ones were too busy running away, she wondered how much time would take to the Aurors to get here.

Curse, hex, curse, hex… it was like a dance between her and the prick, one of his curses reached her shoulder and cut her, nothing serious but enough to take her off guard. A gasp caught her attention and her eyes widened when she saw Harry and Hermione looking at her, they had left the store! She got distracted so she didn't have time to avoid the next curse, she closed her eyes knowing that she would not be able to move on time and then she heard a high pitched scream.

"Mum?!" Harry asked surprised and she opened her eyes only to realize that she was now standing next to her son.

"How?!" she asked and then looked at the street.

"Hermione!" Harry yelled and the Death Eater threw another curse.

Hell broke loose.

* * *

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	4. Chapter 4

**Happy reading! **

* * *

**Chapter 4.**

"Why did you do it? Everything was under control" Harry asked calmly.

Hermione couldn't talk, she was tired of crying and her stomach hurt like hell. They were both lying down on a St. Mungo's bed, even if Hermione was the only one who needed to be there right now, Harry didn't want to leave her. Only the Marauders and Lily knew Harry was there, the healers would never allow it of course but there were certain perks about having an invisibility cloak.

"I mean I know it wasn't exactly on purpose but..."

Hermione tensed.

"It was on purpose?" Harry asked perplexed.

She nodded.

"Why?"

She hid her face under the covers, even if both of them were watching the ceiling she didn't want him to read her expressions.

"I didn't want you to know how it feels" she said finally, after a few seconds.

"How it feels? What?" Harry asked bewildered, he wasn't the one who was attacked.

"To be an orphan" she answered almost whispering.

A heavy silence fell between them. So that was it, even after so many months she couldn't get over her time at the orphanage, he knew how bad it was, she told him that much the night he discovered she was bloody afraid of thunders and everything she did today just showed how much she loved her new family. Harry hid under the covers and hugged her, because he realized he would never find the words to thank her enough.

* * *

"Is she going to be okay?" Lily Potter asked.

Healer Jefferson sighed deeply, three worried men and a tearful witch wasn't a good combination.

"I'm quite surprised" he began calmly "she's stable and we know her stomach hurts a lot right now but she's handling it nicely. Before I give you the analysis results I must ask, what happened?" he looked at Sirius when he asked but it was obvious that he was not going to answer.

"We were at Diagon Alley, shopping, I mean Harry, Hermione and I" Lily started "everything was going fine but before I realized what was happening a Death Eater was in front of me."

James who was holding Lily's hand tensed.

"I knew the kids were watching at the other side of the street and I was glad because I didn't want them to get involved" she took a deep breath "I was able to fight the bastard for a while but I got distracted and I knew that the curse was going to hit me but..." She could not continue speaking.

The healer nodded giving her time.

"She exchanged her place with me! I don't even know how she did it! All I know is one second I was fighting and the next one I was next to Harry watching how Hermione received the curse!"

"That's when we got there, the bastard was as surprised as everyone when he saw Hermione so that gave us enough time to catch him" James explained.

Healer Jefferson sighed, he didn't know what to think about the unusual family in front of him but they needed to hear what he was about to say.

"The curse was dark and ancient magic" he started "really uncommon, it destroyed half of her stomach."

Sirius paled and Lily gasped.

"_Destroyed?_" Sirius asked with a hoarse voice.

The healer nodded.

"We tried to rebuild it but we didn't succeed."

"What consequences...?" Sirius tried to ask.

"We don't really know, for now we would suggest to change her diet, she won't be able to eat much anymore and there's a potion she'll have to drink it every week, it'll numb the pain."

"For how long she'll have to drink it?" Remus asked.

"We'll check her progress, everything is uncertain for now."

Sirius hid his face in his hands. He could not believe the situation, his daughter in St. Mungo's, "The Prophet" probably printing the history already and he wouldn't be surprised if Fudge had already an appointed meeting for him to evaluate if he was a good father. Surprisingly that was the least of his worries, he just wanted to see his daughter, was this parental instinct?

"Oh, and another think, we obviously had to run some test on her magic, nothing invasive of course but we discovered something really interesting."

"Interesting?" Remus Lupin asked apprehensively.

The healer smiled for the first time of the conversation.

"Did you know she has a soulmate?"

"A soulmate?" Sirius asked confused.

The healer nodded.

"And he's a really special boy."

"Do you know who he is?" Lily asked.

"Of course! I must say I'm surprised you didn't realize sooner Miss Potter considering is your son, I mean."

James gaped and exchanged a look with Sirius. That was what they felt the day Harry and Hermione met.

"Harry and Hermione are soulmates?" Lilly asked shocked.

"And I must say that their bond is quite strong."

"But how do you know Harry is...?"

"Oh, we keep a record of magical signatures since the birth of the witch or wizard, and analyzing the documents we found a really strong match in Hermione's, after seeing how worried the young Mr. Potter was when you brought the young witch in here that left me no doubts."

The healer wanted to laugh at the several expressions of the people in front of him.

"I think it would be wise to keep it a secret even for them" he advised them "let them grow closer at their own pace, after seeing them together today I think that you won't be able to separate them, I can provide you some books about that topic. Any questions?"

Sirius was the first one to find his voice.

"Can I see her?"

* * *

Sirius didn't know what to say, he wanted to yell at her, he wanted to hug her and he wanted to laugh because she was alive, but the moment he went into her room she throw herself at him and hugged him, she caught him by surprise but he hugged her back immediately.

"Don't you ever do something like that to me again" he said with a hoarse voice, trying to control the lump in his throat.

Everyone gaped at the scene and Harry took that chance to get off the bed and ran to be next to his parents.

"I want to go home" Hermione said, hiding her head in the crook of his neck.

"We'll leave soon, princess."

* * *

Hermione spent several weeks drinking potions, going to St. Mungo's for check-ups, getting visits of worried people and talking with Harry on a daily basis. She was feeling better with each passing day. Getting used to eat less was going to be hard but she was sure she could handle it, after all she wasn't greedy about food.

The history about the accident didn't reach "The Prophet", Narcissa Malfoy took care of that using her connections, for some reason she liked Hermione and since she was a Black she couldn't allow drama around the last name. Sirius was really grateful.

The Death Eater who attacked them that day was Antonin Dolohov, he was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in Azkaban although Sirius suggested the Dementor's kiss.

"Hermione, you need to drink the potion" Remus said sighing.

She shook her head stubbornly and grabbed Harry's hand. They were at Grimmauld Place, Harry was visiting and Remus, who took very seriously Hermione's medical treatment, couldn't believe how difficult it was for her to drink one single potion.

"I'm fine."

He knew she was lying, she was a terrible liar. He could see tears welling in her eyes and he knew it was because her stomach hurt, what possessed Molly Weasley to send the child a cake after everyone told her that she wouldn't be able to eat much? He'll never know.

"Hermione, you ate too much cake."

She shook her head again and he sighed again, he knew how much she despised the potion but it was necessary otherwise he would have to take drastic measures.

"Fine, you don't have to drink it" he said and she smiled "but I'll take Harry to his house and I'll place a charm on the library door until you take the potion."

Her smile faded and Harry exchanged a worried look with her.

"That's not fair, dad!" She said and this time tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Then drink it."

"I hate that potion! I'm fine!"

"No, you're not" he insisted.

"Come on, Hermione" Harry said squeezing her hand lightly "drink it and then we can go upstairs and play."

Remus observed the exchange curiously, ever since the healer informed them about the soulmates thing he started to notice small things about the children. What puzzled him the most was the fact that they could look at each other without saying anything and even then they understood each other perfectly, this was one of those times.

Hermione gave up and grabbed the vial to take a large sip, the potion tasted like rotten eggs and it made her want to throw up.

Remus smiled satisfied.

"See? It wasn't that bad" he said.

Hermione huffed and dragged a smiley Harry upstairs.

* * *

"I believe that you must be wondering why I called you"

Sirius huffed while looking around, he hated Fudge's office, he hated how small and smelly it was. Not enough books and too many boxes with Merlin knows what inside, but what he hated the most was the man in front of him. His mustache was tacky and he had too much power and no capacity to control it. Fucking government and bloody ministry, this is why he was an anarchist.

"You called me to blackmail me again" Sirius said sardonically "and unfortunately is not going to work."

"You seem to be very sure about that fact" Fudge said.

Sirius smirked.

"I am."

"I won't lie Mr. Black" Fudge said "we are having some financial troubles inside the Ministry, therefore we have asked for some contributions and most people have been really charitable."

Sirius shook his head.

"First of all you wouldn't have financial troubles if you'd stop stealing like a corrupt piece of shit and second I believe those people weren't innocent, otherwise you wouldn't have find a way of blackmailing them" Sirius said "I'm clean and I haven't done anything wrong, I won't give you my gold."

Fudge sighed heavily and Sirius fought the urge to hex him right there, he didn't have time to be here, he needed to go back and be with Hermione who was probably wondering where he was.

"I was afraid that you would say that" Fudge said "but, answer me something, how is your daughter?"

Sirius tensed.

"Perfectly fine" he said "not that you care."

Fudge nodded.

"You're completely right, I don't care" he said "oh, but did you know that there's a special institution that makes sure that adopted children have a great quality of life at their homes?"

Sirius could feel a headache growing.

"Your point?"

"If I were to inform this institution that Hermione Black was attacked…"

"Don't you dare!" Sirius said exploding "that was your entire fault! You and your useless work as the Minister allowed that Death Eater bastard to go around throwing curses!"

"I won't deny it" Fudge said smiling "but how many people would believe you? The Black family was really known for their links to the dark arts and as far as I'm concerned there hasn't been a single history about the Death Eater attack on the newspaper."

Sirius's eyes widened.

"So, if that institution were to run some tests on your daughter would they find her perfectly healthy?" Fudge asked "because if that's not the case you might find yourself losing your daughter and who knows? My ministry, as you say, it's pretty useless and no one takes good care of the children within the system, she might get lost somewhere, in the best case scenario of course."

Sirius couldn't help it, so he threw himself at Fudge and grabbed him by the neck of his robes.

"You stay away from my child" Sirius said menacingly "I adopted that girl magically and in case you don't know how that works it means that she's mine even by blood."

"I suggest you to let go off me unless you want me to call security" Fudge said suddenly aware of the fact that he was dealing with an Auror, an expert at fighting.

Sirius let go off him and sighed.

"Don't you have some other pureblood to steal from?"

"I'm finding quite difficult to find some other pureblood who is as scared of the Ministry as you."

Sirius frowned.

"I'm not afraid of you" he said.

"Of course you are, we sent you to Azkaban and obviously the Dementors did quite the number with you, not to mention that you ran to adopt a child when we tried to get close to you and look at you right now, you're shaking from head to toe."

Sirius tried to control his breathing, he had to admit that the mention of Dementors was enough to send chills down to his bloody bones.

"I'm shaking because I'm enraged asshole" Sirius said "don't get me wrong."

"You have three days" Fudge said finally "cooperate with us or trust the system to take care of your daughter."

Sirius left the office without looking at Fudge's satisfied face.

* * *

When Sirius arrived at Grimmauld place he was relieved to see Hermione fast asleep on her bedroom. If she were to ask he wouldn't be able to explain why he looked like he was in pain. He walked downstairs to find Remus at the living room, reading. Without a warning he grabbed the book and threw it far away.

"Hey!" Remus said "I was reading that and…"

Sirius didn't let him finish what he was going to say, instead he straddled him and kissed him full on the lips as if his life or sanity depended on that.

To say that Remus was shocked was an understatement, he couldn't understand what had gotten to Sirius, it was even worse when his body started to feel hot and the way his lips seemed to move on his own. He was answering and Sirius's kisses were demanding and rough, Remus was about to let himself go but he remembered the little girl sleeping upstairs and they weren't even using a privacy charm.

"Sirius" Remus tried to say but Sirius wasn't stopping "Sirius wait!"

It took five seconds for Sirius to stop.

Both men stared at each other breathing heavily.

"What?" Sirius asked.

"Hermione is upstairs" Remus said "unless you want her to see us in a compromising position I suggest you to calm down."

Sirius cursed under his breath.

"I have never thanked you for supporting me" he said angrily "I've been a shitty friend and a shitty father and now she lost half of her stomach."

"You gave us a daughter" Remus said cutting his self-loathing speech "it would've been a lot better if you had talked to me about what the fuck we were or where we were standing but I don't regret raising her along with you, besides the accident wasn't your fault! It wasn't anyone's fault."

Sirius hid his head on Remus's chest.

"I gave us a daughter" he repeated and then chuckled "you sounded too damn gay."

Remus sighed annoyed.

"Considering how we're both gays I won't take that as an offense."

"We might lose our daughter to the Ministry" Sirius said suddenly confusing Remus.

"What do you mean?"

Sirius couldn't think straight, he couldn't explain how angry and defenseless he was feeling. He explained everything to Remus and by the way his face was changing along with every single word Sirius supposed that he was thinking about how to find a solution to the problem. Sirius stopped talking and took a seat next to Remus who seemed to be lost.

"There must be something we can do" he said finally.

"If there was anything I would've done it already!" Sirius said "you already know that I adopted her just to protect my money from those bastards but she's…" he took a deep breath "goddamn it! She's my daughter, just the thought of being away from her or not knowing how's she doing it makes my heart ache, how the fuck do you call that?"

Remus blinked.

"Did you actually think that you wouldn't get attached?" he asked bewildered "she's been with you for a little time but of course you love her as your daughter, she's too damn easy to love."

"Tell me about it" Sirius said while running a hand through his messy hair.

"Besides" Remus added "the adoption at Gringotts created a bond between both of you, it's not like she's a puppy, you're bonded like real father and daughter."

It was then when something made click on Sirius's head.

"Right!" Sirius said while snapping his fingers "that's it!"

"What?" Remus asked.

"She's a pureblood!" Sirius said.

"Well, basically but not really."

"I need to send a letter" Sirius said standing up and running upstairs.

Remus wondered if he had finally lost his mind.

* * *

_Yes, Sirius is crazy. _

That was all Remus could think the next day after greeting Narcissa Malfoy who was with her son Draco in the living room.

"Good morning" Remus said uncomfortable.

"Good morning" the pureblood witch said with a smirk that made Remus believe that she knew his deepest secrets. She probably did.

"Oh!" Sirius said cheerfully appearing behind Remus "I didn't expect you so early."

"I have other things to do and Draco wanted to show Hermione something, she is awake I believe?"

"Hermione is the first one to wake up in the whole house" Sirius said while putting his hands in his pockets "she's probably reading in the library."

"May I go and say hi to her?" Draco asked politely and Sirius fought the urge to roll his eyes at the boy's respectfully pose, he couldn't blame him, his pureblood upbringing was quite something.

"Sure, kiddo" Sirius said and Draco thanked him before running upstairs.

"So" Narcissa said once his son was out of earshot "what did you want to talk about?"

Sirius gulped while taking a seat in front of her. Narcissa Malfoy was intimidating and irradiated power just by looking at her, but Sirius believed that she was the only that could help him so he decided to go straight to the point.

"The Ministry is blackmailing me and if you don't help me I'm going to lose my daughter."

Narcissa laughed, she saw this coming.

"You don't seem surprised" Remus pointed out.

"Oh no, I'm not" Narcissa said "you'll see, Lucius found himself in a similar position a few months back."

Sirius's eyes widened.

"Don't worry cousin, you've called the right person" she said "explain, from the start."

* * *

"What are you doing here?" Hermione asked Draco once she saw him entering the library.

"Your father wrote to my mum" Draco said sitting next to her "what are you reading?"

"Oh!" Hermione said smiling "it's a forbidden spell's book, but don't tell dad, he doesn't want me to read these."

"Cool" Draco said approvingly "hey, talking about spells, come with me I want to show you something."

"Sure" Hermione said closing her book.

* * *

"To summarize this, you want me to put an end to this whole situation?" Narcissa asked and Sirius nodded.

"I would be in debt to you and Hermione…"

"I won't lie to you cousin" Narcissa said interrupting him "I like the girl, Merlin I wish I had a daughter like her, she's elegant, smart and polite, but how would this be beneficial to me?"

Sirius blinked.

"What do you want?" he asked.

Narcissa chuckled.

"Don't be tacky please" she said amused "I don't play that game and I have everything I've ever wanted, a loving husband a healthy little boy and fortunately money has never been a problem for me."

"Then?" Sirius asked and Remus could see how anxious he was.

"Let's suppose I refuse to help you" Narcissa said "what would you do?"

Sirius gulped.

"I would've to give them my gold" he said "I cannot afford to lose my daughter."

Narcissa nodded.

"Luckily for you I've been bored lately" she said "Draco has been learning how to ride a broom properly and God knows I'm not good for that, so this" she said pointing to Sirius "will give me something to do."

"But you want something else" Remus concluded.

"Of course I do" she said smiling "you'll see, after Lucius and I betrayed the Dark Lord I've been trying to raise my son without prejudices."

Sirius didn't believe her but he didn't say anything.

"But ever since I saw Hermione I couldn't help it, she has a lot of potential"

"Potential?" Sirius asked apprehensively.

"Yes, as the heiress of the House of Black I would like to educate her on etiquette."

Sirius groaned, he knew where this was going.

"You just want to instruct her in the pureblood norm so the House of Black doesn't break the tradition."

Narcissa shook her head.

"You're going too far" she said "times have changed, I won't teach her prejudice, I just want her to understand her roots and how important is to keep some kind of behavior, her last name is not to be taken lightly."

"I feel like I'm going to throw up" Sirius said angrily "may I ask what's wrong with the way we've been raising her?"

Narcissa sighed.

"Well, I don't have many complaints" she said "you have good taste, her wardrobe fits her magnificently and as I said before she's so polite, it's endearing."

"But?"

"But she gets along with the Order children, the Longbottoms, Weasleys and of course the Potters."

"I'm not going to forbid her to see her friends" Sirius said.

"I wasn't going to suggest it" she said "I have nothing against the Longbottoms and the Potter boy gets along with my son so I see nothing wrong there."

"So the problem are the Weasleys?" Remus asked taken aback "they are purebloods."

Narcissa nodded and both men looked at her with confused glances.

"Fine, I didn't want to be so direct but you're not giving me much choice" she said "Hermione is a Black and my niece, she will probably have deep friendships with those boys since they are all going to attend Hogwarts together, do you realize that the probabilities that she ends up marrying one of them are extremely high, right?"

Sirius laughed hard.

"They are children!" he said "and you are already talking about marriage?!"

Narcissa tapped her elegant fingers on her knees and glared at him.

Sirius shut up immediately.

"Yes, you might be correct, is too soon to talk about marriages but would you approve of your daughter living in a house that goes by the name "Burrow"?"

Sirius frowned.

"Hermione is just a child" he said again angrily "and even if she were to choose a poor husband it wouldn't matter as long as she's happy, right?"

Narcissa chuckled.

"Well, then if money isn't really that important why don't you give your gold to the Minister? Let him suck every single galleon and then you can come and tell me how it doesn't matter to you because you are "happy"" she said.

Sirius didn't want to admit it but his cousin's words were actually making sense to him.

"It would be different if you didn't have a child" she said "but you're not thinking straight, all I am asking is a chance to show Hermione what kind of history goes behind her lineage, the good and the bad, teach her about our customs, a few spells and I want to teach her what kind of suitors are worthy of her."

"You won't talk her into this pureblood privilege, right? You won't make her believe that she's better than anyone just because of her last name, right?" Sirius asked.

"Of course not!" she said "I give you my word."

Sirius gulped.

"This is not a trick, right? I mean she would spend a lot of time with you every once in a while, you won't play matchmaker with her and your son?"

Narcissa frowned.

"I'm starting to feel offended" she said "so let's go straight to the conclusions, the first one is that I get to teach this girl things that I consider necessary for a girl like her to blossom into a good witch and the second one is that as long as you don't hide a marriage contract with a redhead I'll protect her from our useless Ministry."

"Why do you hate the Weasley family so much?" Remus asked with sincere curiosity.

Narcissa waved a hand dismissively.

"I don't like them and I don't owe explanations to anyone about that particular topic" she said "do we have a deal?"

"We do and just for the record" Sirius said "I don't believe in marriage contracts."

"I'm glad" Narcissa said "besides, rest assured, it's been centuries since they abolished that ridiculous law about marrying your cousins to keep the bloodlines pure, my Draco won't marry Hermione."

"Can you really stop Fudge?" Sirius asked.

Narcissa smiled.

"As a Malfoy there's very little I cannot do."

It was then when a high pitch scream was heard and the three adults were on their feet instantly, seconds later Draco and Hermione were coming downstairs at full speed on a broom. Remus was sure that they were going to crash into a wall but Narcissa waved her wand and the broom stopped immediately.

"Hi, Aunt Cissa" Hermione said smiling brightly.

"Hello, my dear" Narcissa answered with a smile.

Sirius was starting to regret his deal with her.

* * *

**Okay, so I love all of your reviews from the last chapter so I updated a little bit earlier than planned! **

**Thank you, thank you so much for all of your kind words, I appreciate them A LOT! Your reviews keep me inspired so keep them coming! Now, I always thank you personally but I'm in a hurry so I'll thank each one of you in the next chapter! **

**Let me know what you think of this chapter and if you liked it! **

**Take care!**

**Pd. I apologize for my grammar mistakes. **


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5.**

* * *

Sirius decided that while his worries about Narcissa teaching Hermione some customs were excusable, considering who she was, the child was the same even after two years of going regularly to Malfoy Manor. Besides Narcissa kept her part of the deal, Sirius didn't understand what she had done exactly but ever since then Fudge avoided Sirius like the plague, it was funny and weird in its own way.

Hermione was seven now and there were some obvious changes of course, she walked a little more graceful, she had better table manners, she was using bigger words now and she walked with her chin up as if an imaginary crown were to fall off her head if she were to look down. Remus found it amusing and Lily agreed with him, James had his doubts but since Hermione's behavior was the same he refrained for saying out loud how Narcissa Malfoy was once a blood purist.

Besides the only ones who knew that Hermione was a muggleborn, beside Remus and Sirius, were the Potters.

The people from the Order assumed that Sirius had found her in a magical orphanage and it wasn't a secret how some pureblood families lost their children in the war, so everyone believed that Hermione was as pureblood as Sirius. The Malfoys believed it too and "The Prophet" was full of racist writers and reporters so perhaps they couldn't even imagine Sirius Black adopting a muggle.

Lily believed it was for the best, she loved Hermione so she didn't want her to through the same discrimination she had to endure at Hogwarts.

"You look annoyed" James told him while offering him a muggle soda.

Sirius took it gratefully.

"Remind me why are we here" he said while looking around.

They were sitting on a bench at a muggle park, of all places, Harry and Hermione were playing not so far away and Sirius couldn't ignore how a group of four muggle boys kept looking at Hermione with curiosity. It was a good thing, for them, that they were around her age otherwise he would've already given them a murderous glare.

"Because the society pages of "The Prophet" keep harassing our children" James said calmly "and because this is like the safest place on earth, we didn't choose this neighborhood for nothing."

Sirius sighed.

"I never imagined that you would feel comfortable living near Vernon Dursley" he said and chuckled when James shuddered.

"Don't remind me" he said "we're several streets away, but I swear I can almost feel him looking through his window complaining about freaks living near him."

Sirius nodded and observed how the boys had now approached Hermione. She smiled at them and three of them blushed.

"That girl will make me pay for all my sins" he said dramatically and James laughed.

"Definitely," James agreed smiling "I can't exactly remember how many hearts you broke at Hogwarts but she might break your record."

Sirius covered his face with hands and groaned.

"Perhaps my straight phase was a mistake," he said "I'm not ready to pay for that."

James seemed to think about it for a second.

"Well" he said while taking a sip of his soda "I seriously thought that you would marry young and that our children would marry each other but then you fell in love with Moony."

"Those damn brown eyes" Sirius cursed and James smirked.

"Well" the Lord Potter said "it was for the best, you ended up adopting your godson's soulmate."

"Can you believe that?!" Sirius asked bewildered "I mean, where would she be if I hadn't found her?!"

"I ask myself that quite often" James admitted frowning "they would've met at Hogwarts but she would be different, the orphanage looked awful."

"It was" Sirius confirmed "the first nights she would wake up scared because she had several nightmares about that place."

James winced.

"Perhaps it was already destiny, we're really lucky to have her" he said finally.

Sirius nodded and took a sip of his soda, he spit it almost instantly.

"What in Merlin's name is this?!" he asked disgusted and James laughed.

It was then when Hermione approached him and James noticed how Harry was still playing with the other boys.

"Hey, Princess" Sirius said "having fun?"

Hermione nodded and smiled at him.

"I just came to inform you" she said playfully "I'm engaged to the blonde boy" she pointed at the boy in question and Sirius paled.

"Do you even know what being engaged means?" he asked her with panic written all over his face.

"Of course I do!" she said crossing her arms stubbornly "it means we'll get married in some years."

James sighed.

"Hermione" he said "why did you agree to marry him?"

She shrugged.

"He's cute" she said simply and Sirius closed his eyes and took a deep breath "besides, he's the first blonde one to ask, I don't count Draco because he's _platinum_ blonde which is different."

"Draco has asked you?" Sirius said with horror straining his voice.

"Yeah" she said "but I rejected him because he is family and you're not supposed to marry your family, that's why I rejected Neville too."

James's eyes widened.

"Neville asked you to marry him?!" he asked surprised.

Hermione nodded.

"Yes" she said "he was quite sad after I told him no."

"How many boys have asked you?" Sirius said "why this is the first time I've heard about this?!"

"Because I rejected all of them" Hermione said as if it was the most logical thing in the world "Aunt Cissa says that witches have the right to be picky about this sort of thing and four boys have asked me, this one is the first one I accept."

Sirius frowned.

"Okay" he said cautiously "who is the other one?"

"Harry" she answered blushing and averted James's gaze.

"Did you reject him because you consider him a brother like Neville?" James asked amused and she shook her head.

"I told him that I wanted to marry him but not yet" she explained "I told him to ask me again in a few years."

James laughed and Sirius gaped.

"You are seven years old!" Sirius said exasperated "why the fuck are seven year olds talking about marriage?! Why are you accepting and rejecting boys?!"

Hermione shrugged.

"I don't know why they are talking about it" she said and James found her innocence endearing, he was starting to pity Sirius a little "but I find funny how they are asking me."

"I need a bloody drink" Sirius said "stop accepting marriage offers from strangers, you need my permission to get married and I'm not allowing it."

Hermione pouted at him.

"Okay" she said and then the blonde boy approached them nervously, she turned around and smiled at him "I cannot marry you until you ask for my dad's approval" she pointed at Sirius and the boy gulped nervously.

It took him five seconds to run away crying.

Hermione sighed and Sirius smirked.

"You should find someone who is not scared of me" he said smiling at her "I'll approve him then."

Hermione nodded and James couldn't wait for her to grow up to tease her about her little "I want to get married" phase.

* * *

While Sirius half-joked about telling Hermione to look for someone who wouldn't be scared of him to be her husband he couldn't help but wonder if there would come a time when he would have to reject marriage contracts. The magical society was almost archaic with these sorts of customs but he didn't believe in loveless marriages, hell, he could remember his mother mentioning once or twice the names of suitable witches for him. Luckily, he ran away from home before she could do something crazy like engage him in that sort of relationship.

"Do you think she got that for me?" Sirius asked Remus who was arranging some potions in the kitchen.

"She has your hair" Remus said casually "I understand the magical adoption changed her a little bit physically, but I don't know enough about it to confirm if she could inherit some of your personality."

Sirius ran a hand through his hair.

"I mean, I know I used to go around asking witches to snog in broom closets, mind you most of the time they were the ones asking" he said while leaning on the door frame "but she's going around accepting _marriage _offers."

"Sirius" Remus said tiredly "this isn't your karma for being a womanizer if that's what you're suggesting."

"Really?" Sirius asked dumbfounded "then why is she doing it?"

Remus looked at him as if he was an idiot.

"Because lately she's being reading love stories" the werewolf explained while picking a book that Hermione left forgotten in the kitchen and throwing it at Sirius who caught it easily "she's a six year old girl, she probably finds the whole thing romantic, but she will grow up therefore she'll forget about this."

Sirius looked at the book cover, it had a Princess wearing a white dress while smiling dreamily.

"Great" Sirius said a little bit relieved "since I'm not paying my sins yet is safe to assure that I won't…"

"Oh, you'll pay" Remus said interrupting him "she's still a little girl but once she reaches Hogwarts she'll discover broom closets."

Sirius paled.

"Why the fuck aren't you worrying?!" he asked.

Remus fought the urge to slap him.

"Sirius" he said "Hermione is not like that and on the other hand she's Harry's soulmate, I've been reading, those two will end up dating and even if it takes them a little bit of time it's not like Harry will let anyone get too close. The bond they share will be profound, and if Harry ends up being like James I'm pretty sure that he'll confess by the beginning of their sixth year."

"Well" Sirius said "let's thank James and Lily for the pup's existence."

Remus closed his eyes and counted to five.

"Don't take Hermione's comments about marriage seriously" he advised him finally "God knows you're not ready for parenthood if you're worried about that now."

"I will never be ready" Sirius agreed "so let's pray her childhood lasts forever."

* * *

Luckily, the marriage topic was replaced quickly just as Remus predicted. Hermione found other books and started to play with Sirius's wand around the house, practicing charms and some simple spells, Remus couldn't believe how talented she was.

"So" Sirius said while taking a sip of tea "we have an appointment at St. Mungo's today and then we'll go to the Ministry, I have to pick some papers."

Hermione frowned.

"I thought you weren't allowed to bring paperwork home" she said.

"I'm not" he said "but I haven't done any of it so I'll bring it secretly and deliver it tomorrow morning."

Hermione nodded.

"We should skip the appointment at the hospital" she suggested smiling "I'm fine."

Remus shook his head.

"That's not an option" he said and Hermione pouted.

* * *

James was arranging some paperwork around the office when Sirius stepped inside carrying a sleepy Hermione.

"Hey" James said "is something wrong?"

Sirius sighed.

"They gave her a new medicine" he explained "it makes her sleepy so I have to be quick, if Shacklebolt finds out that I'm here with my child he'll accuse me of…"

"Breaking the rules" a deep voice said behind him and Sirius cursed his luck.

"Shacklebolt" he greeted with a smile while turning around.

"I just came to ask if you've finished the paperwork already" the head Auror said casually while looking around "but apparently you're both playing babysitters today."

James sighed while looking at Harry who was asleep on his chair, he couldn't blame him, the office work was always boring but he couldn't leave his child at home alone.

"I can explain" James said quickly "you'll see, Lily has a meeting and…"

"I don't need explanations from you, Lord Potter" Shacklebolt said "your paperwork was delivered on time so you're free to leave."

Sirius gulped when the Head Auror turned to look at him.

"On the other side you cannot leave until you fill every single form."

"Oh, come on!" Sirius said "I need to take my daughter home."

Shacklebolt didn't pay too much attention to the little girl who was fast asleep on Sirius's arms.

"Lord Potter can take care of her while you're at this" he suggested calmly and Sirius knew by that the he wouldn't be able to run away from work.

* * *

Five minutes later James was walking with Hermione on his arms while a drowsy Harry was walking next to him, he tried to ignore all the looks that he was receiving but it was difficult, it didn't help at all that a group of witches giggled when he passed by. When he finally reached the apparition point he thanked the gods and went home without missing a beat.

* * *

Sirius appeared the next day, looking as if he was going to lose his mind. The kids were having breakfast with James.

"If I fill another form…" Sirius said while taking a seat on the dining room "I'm killing myself."

James chuckled.

"It could've been worse" he suggested and Sirius glared at him.

It was then when an owl flew through the dining room and dropped a newspaper on Hermione's head. Harry laughed and took it, he spread it on the dining room table and read along with Hermione.

"We're on the front page!" Harry said excitedly and then frowned "I look sleepy."

Hermione scowled.

"You look sleepy and I'm asleep on this picture" she said and then pouted "I don't like it."

James looked at the picture and sighed. Someone had taken a picture as he was leaving the Ministry of Magic yesterday, he was carrying Hermione and Harry was following him drowsily, any other time he would've laughed and put the picture on the wall but he was getting tired of "The Prophet" printing both, Hermione and Harry, and exposing them like that. He wondered if he could do anything to stop the harassment…

"What does it say?" Harry asked and Hermione decided to read aloud.

**Parenthood had never looked so good.**

_We were really surprised when we caught Lord James Potter leaving the Ministry, why? You may ask, well he was with The Boy Who Lived and someone else! As you can see in the picture Hermione Black was fast asleep on his arms, isn't that cute? _

_You should also notice how little Harry looked sleepy too! _

_That made us wonder, do Ministry employees are allowed to take their children to their workplace? And more importantly, are Lord Potter and Lord Black raising their children together? _

_Now, don't get that last question wrong. _

_It is not a secret how the House of Potter and the House of Black have a deep friendship, but could it be that Sirius Black adopted cute Hermione with hidden intentions? Like, an arranged marriage? _

_It wouldn't be surprising, after all the Noble House of Black is known for keeping the wizarding traditions alive through the centuries. _

_Besides, look how comfortable Hermione Black looks around the Potters, and it is also known how James and Lily Potter already adore Hermione Black like a daughter, could it be that all of this was planned? _

_Well, we'll keep you informed! _

_It's such a shame that the press has no access to the private documents of pureblood families, but we won't give up! _

"This is bullshit" Sirius said while grabbing the newspaper after Hermione finished reading.

"Language" Hermione admonished him frowning "but yes, it's quite infuriating."

Harry frowned.

"I don't understand" he said.

Hermione looked at him.

"The press is suggesting that dad adopted me so I could get married to you" she said and then rolled her eyes, James noticed how she was blushing slightly "we both know it's impossible."

"Totally" Harry said crossing his arms "every single time Uncle Padfoot hears the word "marriage" he makes a funny face, like if he's about to have an attack."

Both children looked at Sirius who was looking at the newspaper with widened eyes and a pale face.

"Told you" Harry smugly and Hermione chuckled.

James laughed.

"Why don't you two go and watch telly for a while?" he asked them "I'll make sure Padfoot eats something."

"Thank you, Uncle James" Hermione said politely and grabbed Harry's hand to take him to the living room.

Once James made sure the kids were out of earshot he casted a privacy spell and looked at Sirius.

"Okay, what are you thinking?" he asked in all seriousness.

"What do you mean?" Sirius asked him without letting go off the newspaper.

"I've seen that face before" James said casually "something's bothering you."

Sirius ran a hand through his already messy hair.

"I'm getting tired of this" he said angrily "had I known how many problems my last name would bring I would've stopped using it a long time ago."

James nodded.

"It's quite late for that" he reasoned "is there anything else?"

Sirius nodded and looked at him.

"Listen" he said "we both come from very traditional houses, we both know how history goes and all of that."

James frowned.

"The thing is" Sirius continued "that while Hermione was going through her "I want to get married" phase I wondered if there would come a time where I would have to reject actual and genuine marriage offers."

"It's a possibility" James said pensively "considering how archaic the magical society behaves when it comes to that."

Sirius nodded.

"Exactly" he said "the same could happen to you, one day some crazy family might come and suggest a union with the House of Potter."

James chuckled.

"I would like to see them try" he said humorous "Lily would go crazy."

Sirius smiled at that.

"Well," he said proudly "is not a secret how fierce the Lady Potter is when it comes to protect the pup."

"But what are you trying to say?" James asked "if it comes to that we simply reject them all, we agreed that our children would be free to choose anything they want, that includes their couples."

Sirius sighed heavily.

"They will end up dating" he said without hesitation "even if it takes them a while, Moony told me apparently he's been reading about soulmates."

James crossed his arms.

Ever since Healer Jefferson told them about the true nature behind Harry and Hermione's bond they appointed him as the main Healer of both families, and Lily alongside with Moony had been tracking the children's behavior whenever they were together. It was fascinating for everyone to see them growing together.

One time, Harry grabbed James's broom without telling anyone and by the time everyone found out he was already on the backyard. He fell and before anyone could react Hermione accidentally put a cushion charm all over the backyard. Another time Hermione cut her own hand while doing a homework and she panicked, because while the wound wasn't that bad, it bleed profusely. But once Harry grabbed Hermione's hand the bleeding stopped and the cut was completely healed.

Whenever they were together their magic was amazing. James had never believed in soulmates but he couldn't ignored how powerful Harry and Hermione were, he was curious at how this would develop as they grew older.

"But" Sirius continued "it might take them years, several years before getting together."

"We might receive several marriage offers during that time" James said.

"And unless we have a valid reason to reject them" Sirius said "they won't stop insisting."

"We do not owe explanations to anyone" James said frowning "but go on."

Sirius laughed and grabbed James's hands.

"I know I'm handsome, Padfoot" James said "but if Moony finds out about this you might get in trouble."

Sirius smirked.

"Dear Lord Potter also known as Prongs, Lily's husband and the Pup's father" he said dramatically "would you do me the honor of signing a marriage contract between our Houses?"

At first James laughed hard, for a second he thought that he wouldn't be able to breathe due to his own laughter but after a minute, when he realized that Sirius wasn't laughing alongside him, his laughter stopped.

"You're kidding" James said and Sirius face didn't changed "Merlin, you're not kidding. Are you drunk? Lily would never allow it, Moony would hex you on the spot! Did Shacklebolt torture that much? How many paperwork did you do?"

Sirius sighed and let go off James's hands.

"Hear me out" he said.

James nodded.

"We just have to establish the contract and send copies to our respective vaults" he explained and stood up, he started to pace around the dining room "the Goblins would send the original one to the Ministry where no one can access to it."

James frowned.

"What for?" he asked confused.

"In case of emergency" Sirius said seriously "if someone comes and starts insisting, the contract will be there as proof of the agreement between our Houses."

"But…"

"It will also work in the worst case scenario" Sirius said interrupting James "what if someone kidnaps the pup? Or Hermione? It could happen and if by any chance it happens when they're older…"

"The contract would make it impossible for the kidnapper to celebrate a forced marriage" James said with widened eyes "but you're talking as if we're in imminent danger, did someone threaten you?"

Sirius shook his head.

"No, I'm just getting ahead of every scenario" he explained "having a child makes you think this kind of stuff, and besides look at this."

Sirius pointed angrily at the newspaper.

"They keep exposing them as if they're celebrities!" he exploded "I want to go to their fucking offices and hex every single one of those bloody reporters!"

James sighed.

Everything Sirius said was true. Due to the nature of their Houses the possibilities of someone wanting to take advantage of the children was high, not to mention that the Society pages kept exposing their family life and some families, some dark families, might not like the friendship between two noble and powerful houses. A marriage contract would protect Harry and Hermione against several circumstances.

"We wouldn't sign it" James said letting the information sink in "it would be just an established alliance."

Sirius nodded.

"Just to use it in case of emergency" he added "and if they end up together we won't even have the need to tell anyone about it, it'll be a secret."

James frowned.

"Lily would never approve" he said.

"Moony would castrate me on my sleep" Sirius said.

James and Sirius exchanged a smirk.

"A secret between patriarchs?" James asked "I never imagine this day would come."

Sirius extended his hand.

"I cannot imagine doing this with anyone else" he said solemnly.

James stood up and took his hand.

"If this blow up in our faces I'm killing you" he said smiling and an oath settled between them.

James removed the privacy charm and they both heard the children laughing in the living room.

_It's going to be okay_ James thought _they will end up together when they're older._

He just never imagined how much time would it take or all the drama they would have to endure before getting to that.

* * *

**I'm back, I hope you liked this chapter! It took longer than I expected, I hope you enjoyed it! **

**To thank everyone who reviewed the last one:**

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**LunaM303: Oh, I know! Don't worry, I just like to torture Sirius like that! Thank you so much for your review! Kisses! **

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**Pd. I apologize for my grammar mistakes. **


	6. Chapter 6

**Don't hate me for loving the Malfoys, okay?**

**Happy reading.**

**Chapter 6**

* * *

Dinner at the Potter's was one of Hermione's favorite moments. She always took a seat next to Harry, who always had a hard time eating vegetables, and the grownups would let them go and play by the time the first Firewhisky bottle was open. It was heavenly for her to be surrounded by her parents and the Potters, she loved all of them, but tonight something was weighing on her mind so she couldn't be as happy as always.

"So we have lunch at The Burrow tomorrow, right?" Sirius asked and Remus nodded.

Harry smiled.

"Ron told me that there's a hill near his house where we can use brooms" he said excitedly "we might even play a Quidditch match with Fred and George."

Lily smiled warmly at her son.

"I'm glad to see you excited," she said "but stop distracting yourself from eating the lettuce from your plate."

Harry pouted and Hermione chuckled.

"Are you excited to go to The Burrow too, Princess?" James asked Hermione.

"Ehm…" Hermione said a little unsure "I'm not sure if excited is the right word for it."

Remus frowned.

"Why?" he asked curiously "you've been exchanging letters with Ron too, right? I thought you couldn't wait to meet the magical countryside."

Hermione shrugged as she stabbed her lettuce nervously with her fork.

"Yeah, I know" she said quietly "it's just that…"

"Ginny!" Harry chimed in and the whole table turned to look at him "she's nervous about Ginny!"

Hermione squeezed Harry's hand under the table to show her gratitude.

"Oh" Lily said "that's right, you haven't had the chance to meet some girls near your age."

Hermione nodded slightly.

James wanted to ask if she had any female friends back at the orphanage but, Sirius and Remus, warned him about how that was a forbidden topic. Hermione always got anxious and sad whenever someone would mention, or ask questions, about her life back there so everyone pretended that it never happened.

"You don't have to worry" Lily said "I used to be anxious around girls too when I was a child, but I'm pretty sure that Ginny will be nice, she's Molly's daughter after all."

"I hope so" Hermione said smiling.

After that the topic was changed and once Harry ended eating his vegetables the children were dismissed. Hermione chuckled at the image of his father smiling while opening the Firewhisky bottle.

Harry grabbed Hermione's hand and they both ran upstairs to play.

"Don't get drunk" Remus told Sirius "you won't be able to stand a lunch with the Weasleys if you have a hangover."

Sirius scoffed.

"I'm an expert at drinking, Moony."

James shook his head, Sirius was going to have one hell of a headache tomorrow.

* * *

Once they reached Harry's room Hermione took a seat on the bed.

"Thank you" she said to Harry "I didn't want to lie, you saved me back there."

Harry shrugged.

"That's what friends are for" he said while taking a seat next to her on the bed "why don't you want to go to Ron's house tomorrow? Did something happen? Was he rude on a letter?"

Hermione sighed.

"He's sort of rude in all of his letters, that's not the problem" she explained.

"Then?" Harry insisted.

Hermione took a deep breath as she saw Harry's green eyes. He was her best friend, she could confide in him. Without hesitation she grabbed his hand and decided that she wanted to talk about what was bothering her, she didn't think that sharing it with her parents was the right thing to do but Harry was different, they always kept each other's secrets.

"You have to swear that you'll keep this as a secret" Hermione said seriously "I promised Draco that I wouldn't tell anyone."

Harry nodded.

"I promise" he said as he squeezed her hand and a silent oath settled between them. The first time it happened they both wondered why their magic was reacting like that but now, at eight years old, they got to the conclusion that it didn't matter.

Their magic was always weird whenever they were together.

"Well, I went to visit Aunt Cissa yesterday" Hermione started "and everything was great, even Uncle Lucius was there, he finally returned from his trip."

Harry nodded to let her know that he was following the story.

"Well, Draco was insisting about wanting ice cream but special, the new one of Diagon Alley with hundreds of flavors" Hermione said while rolling her eyes at her cousin's antics "and in the end Uncle Lucius accepted to take us."

"Did something happen at Diagon Alley?" Harry asked.

Hermione nodded.

"We found a table just outside the store so Draco ate his ice cream there with Uncle Lucius and me" she said "Aunt Cissa decided to stay at home…"

"_You know" Hermione said while Draco ate his ice cream happily "you might get chubby if you eat too much dessert."_

"_I don't eat too much dessert" he excused himself stubbornly "you just eat too little food, there's nothing wrong with a little ice cream."_

_Hermione chuckled._

"_Sure, so the cookies the house elves sneak for you don't count?" she asked playfully and Draco gulped while looking at his father._

"_Draco" Lucius Malfoy said "you have to take care of your teeth, too much sweet may ruin them." _

_Draco smiled smugly at Hermione._

"_And you might get chubby too" Lucius said after a pause and then Hermione smiled smugly at Draco. _

"_Are you sure you don't want ice cream?" Lucius asked Hermione._

"_Oh no" she said smiling at him "thank you so much, Uncle Lucius but I think I ate enough at lunch." _

_Lucius nodded. _

"_Narcissa and I worry sometimes" he told her while patting her head "the fact that you cannot eat a lot might have negative consequences in the future."_

"_It's okay" Hermione assured him "the potion gives me the extra nutrients I might need, there's no need to worry." _

_Lucius nodded._

"_Besides" Hermione added while looking at Draco "my dear cousin seems to eat for both of us." _

_Lucius smiled at that while Draco scoffed and Hermione laughed._

_It was then when it happened, a man with worn out robes stopped next to the table and Lucius Malfoy was on his feet instantly. Hermione and Draco gulped as they noticed how tense, and angry, Lucius was. It was unusual for him to show his expressions so clearly in public, not to mention that the Alley was crowded today, Hermione wondered why he reacted like that when he noticed who the man was._

_Arthur Weasley was facing him with anger written all over his face. _

_Hermione thought about greeting properly, he was a pureblood patriarch after all, but Draco grabbed her hand to stop her. Hermione looked at him confused but he simply shook his head, it was a sign to let her know that this was his father's business, only his. _

"_Lucius" Arthur Weasley greeted and Lucius Malfoy put himself in front of the table. _

_His expensive robes blocked Hermione and Draco's vision but they could still listen to the interchange of words._

"_Your trip went well, I presume?" Mr. Weasley said and Hermione thought that he sounded disappointed. _

"_I fail to see how that's any of your business" Lucius said coldly "but everything went according to my schedule, thank you for asking." _

"_Where did you go?" Arthur asked curiously "did you see one of your old… acquaintances?"_

"_Let me ask you an honest question" Lucius said evading the question "what makes you think that I'll discuss my personal business with a wizard of your… category? If I were to describe to you my work I'm pretty sure you wouldn't understand."_

"_Why's that?" Mr. Weasley asked offended. _

"_Because unlike you I do not spend my time inside an office while earning just enough to buy food" Lucius said coldly and Hermione winced inwardly._

_Her uncle was really angry. _

"_At least my work is honorable" Arthur Weasley retorted. _

"_What makes you think that mine isn't?" Lucius asked calmly. _

"_You might have fooled The Order once" Arthur Weasley said "but I do not buy your act, your Dark Lord is long gone but you are still investing in the dark arts." _

_Lucius chuckled. _

"_Please, Arthur don't make a fool of yourself" he said "you already attacked my family once, don't make the same mistake, I won't forgive you a second time." _

"_Is that a threat?" Arthur asked. _

"_Is only a threat if you try anything against my family" Lucius said darkly "something tells me that you know better than that."_

"_Have a nice day, Lord Malfoy" Arthur Weasley said while walking away angrily._

_Hermione frowned confused._

"Arthur Weasley attacked the Malfoys?" Harry asked.

Hermione stood up from the bed and started to pace around Harry's room.

"I know, that's what shocked me the most of the whole conversation" she said "so I asked Draco about it when we went back to the mansion."

_Draco was jumping on Hermione's bed. Whenever she stayed over he would sneak into her room at night so she could read to him or to teach him the most interesting spells she learned inside the Black library, tonight wasn't an exception. Hermione smiled at his antics, she loved having a cousin and Draco, while spoiled and sometimes bratty, was awesome with her, he was always kind and always listened to her whenever she had something to say. _

"_So, dear cousin" Draco said as he stopped his jumping "which interesting spell did you learn this week?" _

_Hermione smiled at him as he took a seat next to her. _

"_I'll tell you" she said "but I want to know something first." _

_Draco crossed his arms. _

"_This is weird" he said "you're always excited about everything you learn."_

_Hermione nodded._

"_I'm just awfully curious" she explained and then pouted at him. _

_Draco smirked. _

"_This has something to do with what happened at Diagon Alley, right?" he asked her and Hermione bit her bottom lip anxiously. _

"_Am I that obvious?" she asked. _

_Draco shrugged._

"_Not exactly," he said "but that's the only interesting thing that happened today." _

"_I thought that it was scary" she said pensively "I was worried that they would start dueling in the middle of the Alley."_

_Draco laughed._

"_I would've loved to see that" he said "father would've won without hesitation."_

_Hermione smiled at that, she agreed with her cousin._

"_What do you want to know?" Draco asked. _

"_Well, when did Arthur Weasley attack you? Why did he do it?" she asked "I couldn't believe it when I heard it." _

"_Oh" Draco said frowning "well I don't remember that but my parents told me. You have to promise not to tell anyone, mother doesn't like to talk about it." _

_Hermione nodded._

"_I promise" she said and Draco sighed._

"_Well, do you know why father decided to betray the dark lord?" he asked and Hermione shook her head. _

"_Why?" _

"_Because mother found out she was pregnant with me" he said smiling "father decided that he wanted something better for his son, somehow he never doubted that he would eventually be defeated."_

_Hermione listened intently. _

"_So, since the war was bad, back in the time mother stayed home the whole time" Draco explained "and father took the first chance he got to contact The Order and assure them that he was on their side, he agreed to work as a double agent." _

_Hermione's eyes widened. _

_She didn't know that part of the story._

"_According to what father told me, James Potter and Sirius Black were the first ones to believe him."_

"_That's hard to believe" Hermione said frowning "dad is pretty skeptical." _

_Draco shrugged._

"_I don't know why, but they both supported father so they agreed his role inside the order" he continued explaining "but some people, like Arhtur Weasley, didn't agree with that decision at all. Apparently he thought that father was simply going to betray them in the end so to prevent that sort of thing father agreed to have Arthur Weasley near him."_

_Hermione didn't want to imagine how awkward that could be, it was clear as day that whenever Lucius Malfoy and Arhtur Weasley were close things were tense. _

"_Father agreed to have Arthur Weasley watching over him" Draco said "but that wasn't enough for him, because one day father had to go outside the country and Arthur Weasley came here to the mansion."_

"_What for?" Hermione asked apprehensively, she didn't like where this was going._

_Draco shrugged._

"_I guess he thought he would find proof that father wasn't honest with the order" he said "the only one inside the mansion was mother, and some house elves, but he didn't find anything so he left. Mother said that he left the mansion like a mess, it was really stressful for her."_

_Hermione nodded. _

"_I can imagine" she said._

"_Unfortunately father was taking too long on the trip this time" Draco said "so mother spent the first months of her pregnancy alone." _

"_Well, not exactly" Hermione interrupted him "you were with her… sort of." _

_Draco nodded smiling._

"_Mother said that I was the only one who gave her enough courage to stand the whole thing" he said "Arthur Weasley kept on coming unannounced and mother was already at edge, every time he came the house would end up as a mess and he kept saying things against father and that would make mother extremely anxious." _

_Hermione was having a hard time imaging Ron's father, the same man who would smile kindly at her during the order meetings, doing this short of stuff towards a pregnant woman. _

"_But one time" Draco continued "mother was walking the gardens and she found a baby dragon." _

"_A baby dragon?" Hermione asked confused._

_Draco nodded, this was his favorite part of the story. _

"_It couldn't fly and somehow it ended up injured in our garden, it was really tiny, well that's what mother says" he explained "I think it came through the forest that's behind the mansion." _

"_And what happened to the dragon? Aunt Cissa has never mentioned having such a pet." _

_Draco sighed sadly. _

"_Well, mother took the dragon in and took care of it for a while" he said "it was nothing but a baby so she was planning to give it to a dragon reserve before it grew up too much. She believes that the pregnancy was making her quite sensitive, or perhaps she was feeling alone, but she got really attached to it."_

_Hermione tilted her head confused, perhaps pregnancy did something funny to women because she couldn't imagine Narcissa Malfoy having a baby dragon around. That sounded a little more like Hagrid, she hadn't met him yet but her parents had told her all about him and his obsession with magical creatures. _

"_But" Draco said "once the baby dragon was still a little weak Arthur Weasley came back." _

_Hermione's eyes widened._

"_He made a mess of the house again but it was worst this time" he said "apparently no one could contact father, Arthur Weasley believed that father went to betray The Order so he searched around the mansion again but this time…"_

"_He found the baby dragon" Hermione said with her lower lip trembling._

_Draco nodded._

"_The dragon got scared and, although it wasn't on the best conditions, it flew towards the forest completely scared, mother didn't even get the chance to say goodbye." _

_Hermione blinked the tears that were threatening to come out. _

"_After that things got harder for my mum" Draco said and Hermione noticed how his voice trembled "she said that she was so sad about the dragon and she was so worried about father too that she passed out on the stairs."_

_Hermione gasped._

"_She almost lost me" Draco said and then cleared her throat "she had to stay in bed for the rest of the pregnancy." _

"_And uncle Lucius?" Hermione asked._

"_Apparently someone at the Ministry messed up his apparition permission" Draco said "it was never proved but he still believes it was Arthur Weasley, luckily he was able to return home and after finding out what happened he didn't leave mum's side." _

_Hermione sighed. _

"_They never forgave him" she said understanding "that's why uncle Lucius put himself between you and Mr. Weasley today."_

_Draco shrugged._

"_He put himself between him and us" he corrected "you're family too, my parents love you."_

_Hermione blushed happily._

"_I'll keep the secret" she promised._

"_Be careful around the Weasleys" Draco advised her "they claim to be goody two shoes but… well, mother still gets sentimental whenever she sees a dragon."_

_Hermione nodded._

"_That's why she named you Draco?" she asked._

_Draco simply smiled smugly. _

Harry stared at Hermione with widened eyes.

"Wow" he said finally, it was a lot of information to process.

Hermione nodded.

"I know" she said sadly.

"That's why you don't want to go tomorrow?" Harry asked curiously.

"I never said that" she said "I'm just worried that I might, you know, get angry when I see Mr. Weasley, you know how my magic reacts whenever I'm angry."

Harry nodded.

"It's quite scary" he agreed and then smiled at her "but don't worry, I'll be there for you! And besides, that's in the past. You should think about how amazing your aunt is, she overcame all of that and now you can enjoy your weekends with Draco."

Hermione smiled.

"You're right about that" she said "I'll do my best tomorrow."

Harry nodded.

"It'll be fun" he said "and perhaps seeing Mr. Weasley's family will give you a different perspective of him."

Hermione smiled, she doubted that but it would be worth a try.

* * *

The next day Remus smiled at the sight of Hermione enjoying the summer breeze and the sun on her face.

They were visiting The Burrow along with the Potters. It was the first time that Hermione was visiting the countryside of the magical world and Remus and Sirius were enjoying seeing her happy while exploring the Weasleys garden. Fred, George, Ron, Harry and Hermione were seeing Percy struggling while fighting with a garden gnome. The adults couldn't listen to what they were saying but Hermione was laughing and that was good.

She was wearing a green sundress, it was a gift from Narcissa obviously, and she was wearing a ponytail. Remus looked amused at Sirius who was also wearing a ponytail, with a contempt sigh he remembered how those two decided to wear matching hairstyles.

"_Remind me" Sirius said casually "why are you doing this?" _

_Hermione huffed as she used her hands to comb Sirius's hair. It was messy, just like hers, and he didn't seem to care to go around looking as if he had a wild nest over his head. She didn't care either but it was fun to tease him about it. _

"_Your hair is long enough to make a ponytail" she explained "I want to see how you look with one, I'll wear one too." _

"_It'll suit me" Sirius said confidently "everything does, after all." _

_Hermione rolled her eyes and smiled._

"_Stay still, dad" she said "I'm almost done, don't you want to cut it?"_

"_Hell no" he said quickly "Moony likes it like this, he likes to pull it when we're…"_

_Remus cleared his throat to interrupt Sirius, he was seeing the whole thing and he couldn't help but smile at the sight of Hermione trying to fix Sirius's hair. It was amusing and he wanted bad a muggle camera for the occasion, he wanted to ask Lily where to buy one. _

"_If we could leave the indecent jokes aside," Remus said finally "it would be great." _

_Sirius winked at him. _

"_You might want to hurry up, Princess" Sirius said "we're supposed to be at The Burrow in half an hour." _

_Hermione smiled and kept on working. _

_Remus chuckled at her focused stance. _

"_Look, dad" Hermione said after a while and put the mirror in front of his face "what do you think?" _

_Sirius smiled widely. _

"_I told you it would suit me" he said and then looked flirtatiously at Remus "what do you think?" _

_Remus thought that it looked amazing, but he didn't want to say it aloud. Sirius didn't need to have a bigger ego. Unfortunately Remus couldn't help but keep staring at him and wondering if he could really use it on their private moments so he could pull it, just like Sirius suggested. _

"_Dad" Hermione said confused "you're blushing."_

_Remus gulped and mumbled something._

"_Damn" Sirius said proudly "I left you speechless."_

"_Oh, sod off" Remus said blushing deeper and Sirius and Hermione laughed. _

"You were jealous, right?" James asked Sirius while taking a seat next to him "Harry and I always match so you wanted to match with Hermione too."

Sirius shrugged, he was wearing black sunglasses, in the end he was suffering from a hangover.

"You don't match with the pup" he said "he just inherited your messy hair, Hermione and I decided to wear ponytails today because we look awesome, that's it."

Remus rolled his eyes.

"Hermione decided it for you" he said "if it were up to you, you would go around without combing your hair."

"But you love my messy hair" Sirius said dramatically "stop complaining."

The lunch was going well, the Longbottoms were running late and Lily was helping Molly in the kitchen. Remus offered to help but Arthur advised him that it would be for the best not to get in the way of Molly and her kitchen, he didn't insist after that. All of the Weasleys children were really nice with Hermione when they met her, especially the twins, they greeted her and Harry as if they were part of the family.

Remus was really thankful.

"Arthur" Remus said "I haven't met your daughter yet, I thought she and Hermione could get along."

The Weasley patriarch smiled at him.

"Ginny is just shy so she's probably taking her time getting ready" he explained "I also hope that she gets along with Hermione, I'm afraid that being surrounded by boys might make her quite… rude."

Sirius smirked.

"Nah" he said "with parents like you? I'm pretty sure she's a good kid."

Arthur smiled at that.

"Yeah" James said amused "I mean, look at Hermione, even with Sirius around she's amazing, Moony has being doing an amazing job."

"I'll hex you, prongs" Sirius said while pointing his want at the Lord Potter "I'm serious."

"I know who you are" James said and Remus rolled his eyes at the lame joke.

It was then when a little redhead girl ran towards the garden, since the living room was quite far from the staircase she didn't notice the adults but they all saw Ginny Weasley approaching Ron in the garden.

"Oh, it's happening" Sirius said "perhaps now you'll stop being a worrywart."

Remus sighed. He just wanted Hermione to be a little less apprehensive towards girls, hopefully Ginny could be a good friend for her.

* * *

Hermione was holding Harry's hand when Ginny Weasley stepped in the garden ready to play with her brothers. She was a redhead, just like everyone else in her house, and had pretty blue eyes. She was a year younger than her but she looked nice, her button like nose was also cute.

"Ginny" Ron said happily "look, these are Harry and Hermione, I told you about them."

Ginny smiled at Harry first and Hermione noticed how she blushed a fiery red.

"Nice to meet you!" Harry said without letting go off Hermione's hand.

"Nice to meet you" Ginny said "I heard a lot about you!"

Hermione frowned and then Ginny looked at her.

"Hermione Black?" Ginny asked and she nodded.

"Pleasure" Hermione said defensively.

"It's a surprise that you look so much like Sirius Black" Ginny said "considering how you're not her real daughter, I mean."

A heavy silence fell between the children and Hermione felt the need to pull Ginny's hair, but that would've been rude, so instead she smiled widely at Ginny and said as nicely as she could.

"Well, it's weird for you to be so pretty" she said using a smile that would've made Narcissa Malfoy proud "considering your ugly personality, I mean."

Harry and Ron gaped.

The lunch was barely starting.

* * *

**Thank you for reading, sorry for taking so long to update, it took me quite a while to write this chapter. I hope you liked it. By the way, I'm planning to make the next chapter the last one before reaching Hogwarts, unless you want to read a little more about them like this, let me know what you think, okay? **

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**Pd. I apologize for my grammar mistakes. **


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey, I'm in a hurry but I wanted to update this chapter so bad, I hope you like it!**

**I mentioned it on the last chapter but Hermione is eight years old right now so Ginny is seven, in case you were wondering.**

**Enjoy! **

* * *

**Chapter 7**

Sirius was used to Prongs and Moony joking about how he wasn't exactly "father material" and he didn't blame them, hell if it wasn't for Moony he wouldn't know what to do half of the time, but it was okay. That of course didn't mean that they were right about him in that aspect, because while he still didn't know what being a father meant, he was pretty damn proud to say that he knew his daughter better than anyone.

Sometimes even better than Moony, although that was a thought he liked to keep for himself.

That's why when he saw Hermione smiling at Ginny in the garden he immediately knew that she didn't like the girl, on the contrary, it seemed that Hermione was ready to tackle the girl and pull her hair. Sirius wondered, with hidden amusement, if he would have to stop a child's fight at some point of the day. He couldn't hear what the kids were talking about but Narcissa would've been proud of Hermione's fake smile and, slightly noticeable, defensive pose.

It didn't take long to Sirius to find out that Hermione and Ginny were not going to be friends.

"It seems they'll get along well" Arthur, who didn't know Hermione really well, said and James nodded agreeing with him.

"See, Moony?" James asked Remus smiling "it'll be okay."

Sirius observed how Moony smiled uneasily at James and smirked.

He had noticed too.

Well, perhaps Sirius wasn't the only one who was good at reading Hermione.

* * *

Hermione tried to distract herself, she knew she couldn't create problems just because she didn't like a girl. So, while enjoying the gnomes in the garden and laughing along Fred and George she decided not to pay any attention to Ginny Weasley and it worked but only for a while. Ginny was the type of girl that liked to be the center of attention, or at least those were Hermione's initial thoughts about it.

The little redhead was holding Harry's hand at any chance she could, she was laughing loudly and whenever Hermione tried to say something she would speak first, she was really rude.

Hermione decided that ignoring her would be the best course of action, she didn't need to get upset and create a ruckus with accidental magic. So once Neville arrived she thanked the heavens, she knew Neville wouldn't feel comfortable around a rude girl and she also knew that he was extremely shy so keeping him company would help her calm down.

"Why are you so late?" Hermione asked him when he finished greeting everyone.

"Dad got lost," Neville explained as he took a seat on a bench next to Hermione on the garden "uncle James had to prepare an emergency Portkey for us."

Hermione laughed at that.

"So…" Neville said while swinging his legs "how come you're not enjoying the afternoon next to Harry? Is not like you two to be apart like this."

Hermione huffed, it was obvious that Neville would notice. He was quiet, shy and sometimes really clumsy but Hermione knew that he was quite observant too.

"I don't like her," Hermione mumbled awkwardly "she reminds me of the girls of the orphanage."

Neville sighed, he didn't know a lot about the orphanage but Harry once told him that that particular topic wasn't easy to discuss with Hermione. Her time in there had been horrible so she never got to forget about it.

"Well," Neville said after a few seconds "even if that's the case we should play, I mean look, Fred and George are bringing the brooms, come on."

Hermione nodded as Neville grabbed her hand and took her to where the others were. She decided that she would at least try to be civil with Ginny.

She wasn't inside the orphanage anymore so she shouldn't let her ruin her day.

* * *

"You know," Sirius said casually to Frank Longbottom "I think your son just saved the day."

Arthur had got up to help his wife to set up the table along with Alice Longbottom who decided that Lily and Molly had done enough already so only Frank, James, Remus and Sirius were watching the kids from the living room. Sirius felt the imperative need to watch over Hermione, he wanted to be that she would end up fighting with Ginny at some point, and while he would obviously stop her from going overboard, he also wanted to find out the reason behind her anger.

"What do you mean?" Frank asked confused, all that Neville had done was to talk with Hermione and dragged her to play with the others. They couldn't hear what the kids were saying but it looked like normal kid's behavior.

Sirius looked around them to make sure that no one could hear them.

"Well, you probably cannot notice" he started to say smugly "but my daughter doesn't like Ginny for some reason."

James frowned.

"How can you tell?" he asked him, they looked like they were getting along fine to him.

Sirius chuckled.

"My dear, Prongs" he said while patting James on the shoulder "I happen to know my kid quite well."

"He's right" Moony said while standing behind Sirius "Hermione got really tense when she met her and her smile was fake, whatever they said to each other was not nice at all."

James's eyes widened.

"How can you tell?" he asked surprised and judging by Frank's widened eyes he was surprised too.

"Oh, come on!" Sirius said slightly offended while looking at his best friend "I did not give birth to her but what kind of father does not know how to read his own child?"

James crossed his arms while smirking and then looked at Moony.

"I never imagine that I would hear him say something like that" James said amused.

"It surprises me sometimes too" Lupin admitted.

"Guys…" Frank said while standing up "since you know Hermione really well I guess you could swear that she wouldn't get involved in a silly, and dangerous, broom race, right?"

"Of course not" Sirius said while rolling his eyes "she hates brooms."

"Then why is she about to ride one?" Frank asked and when Sirius looked back at where the kids were he stood up with panic written all over his face.

Hermione was getting on a broom with a determined look on her face.

"Holy fuck!" Sirius said as he ran towards the garden.

* * *

All of the others followed him.

"Sorry, what?" Hermione asked Ginny. It wasn't that she didn't hear her question but she didn't want to tell her that she was useless on a broom, it would feel like admitting defeat.

"Do you want to compete with me?" Ginny asked her smiling "we ride the brooms to the top of that hill" she said pointing at the place in question "and whoever comes back first wins."

Hermione frowned.

"I don't think…" she started to say but Ginny interrupted her.

"Unless you can't do it" Ginny said tauntingly "in that case I understand, I heard that you're extremely smart. I guess you cannot be good at everything."

Hermione looked behind her, Fred, George, Harry and Ron were trying to teach Neville how to ride a broom properly. They weren't paying attention to them.

"So?" Ginny pressed on.

"I take it that you can ride broom pretty well?" Hermione asked her while crossing her arms.

Ginny nodded.

"Yes!" she said proudly "all of my brothers taught me, that's why I understand if you can't do it."

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked frowning.

"Well, you're an orphan" Ginny said as if it was obvious "no one ever bothered to teach you stuff like this… did they have brooms on the orphanage where you lived?"

Hermione clicked her tongue as she took one of the brooms for Ginny's hands.

"Let's do it" she said defiantly "and once I win you'll apologize to me for calling me an orphan."

Ginny smirked.

"And if I win you'll admit that once an orphan, always an orphan."

Hermione glared at her, how come someone could be so mean? She always excused the girls back at the orphanage because they, just like her, didn't have parents so they didn't know better. But Ginny was completely different, she had an amazing and lovely family, why was she so cruel? Well, in the end it didn't matter to Hermione, she was going to make her apologize.

"Are you sure you'll be fine?" Ginny asked her "the dress might make it difficult for you."

Hermione looked at Ginny's outfit, she was wearing blue jeans and a simple white shirt. That obviously gave her an advantage.

"I don't care" Hermione said while getting on the broom, her hands were sweating and her heart was beating frantically. She wasn't good at this but it was a matter of pride so she couldn't afford to hesitate.

Ginny got on her broom too so they were both ready.

"Hermione," Harry said while approaching her "what are you doing?"

"I'm going to race Ginny" she said while smiling at Harry "cheer for me, okay?"

"But…" Harry tried to say.

"It'll be okay" Hermione interrupted him although she knew she wasn't fooling anyone, she felt terribly unsure.

She was about to tell Ginny to start the race but Sirius stepped into the garden and walked towards her in an all business manner. Hermione huffed, she didn't want him to intervene in this but she supposed that it was inevitable.

"Princess" Sirius said once he was standing next to Harry "sorry but I have to ask, what are you thinking?"

Hermione smiled at him.

"I'm going to race" she explained.

Sirius then looked at Ginny, the little redhead looked impatient to start the race. Sirius could also tell that Hermione was nervous, she was smiling but she was tense and a little pale, he wanted to tell her that there was no need to do this, whatever problem she had with Ginny could be easily ignored, but looking at the determination behind her eyes he supposed that there was no use.

She was stubborn like that.

"As long as you survive I'll allow this" Sirius said finally.

Hermione smiled wider and nodded enthusiastically. Sirius kneeled down so he could be at her height and hugged her.

"You better win" Sirius whispered on her ear "if you do that we might get you one or two books on the way back home."

Hermione giggled and kissed him on the cheek.

"Sirius!" Remus said approaching them "you're supposed to stop this! Not to encourage her!"

Hermione looked around them and suddenly there was a little crowd around them. Everyone had forgotten about the lunch apparently, the Weasley family, the Potters and the Longbottoms were watching too. Hermione gulped when she saw the small crowd, she didn't know if she could do this with everyone watching them.

"Okay, dear public!" George said while standing between Hermione and Ginny "place your bets! Which girl do you think will win?! Ginny Weasley or Hermione Black?!"

"George!" Molly said scandalized "this is not the time…"

"Ten galleons that Hermione wins!" James Potter said smiling and Hermione blushed.

"James?!" Lily asked worriedly, she actually wanted to stop this. She knew that Hermione hated the brooms so why was she doing this?!

"Ten galleons for Ginny!" Arthur Weasley said and Fred started to pick the money as if it was really a serious race.

"Twenty galleons for Hermione!" Frank Longbottom said and Hermione gaped while looking at him, seriously? But he also knew she didn't know how to ride a broom! Now she felt even more pressure to win.

"Okay, this is ridiculous!" Remus said annoyed.

Hermione looked at him and then Sirius spoke.

"One hundred galleons for my daughter!" he said and the twins looked at him as if he was crazy.

"Sirius?!" Remus and Lily asked at the same time.

"Okay!" Fred said "then we, as her older brothers, will bet twenty galleons each for Ginny!"

"Get ready!" George said "ready, set…"

"Mione" Harry said and extended his hand, Hermione took it gratefully "good luck!"

Hermione felt a sudden rush of magic and confidence overflowing. She was sure that Harry hadn't done it on purpose, their magic was always crazy whenever they were together after all but now she felt invincible, she knew she was going to win. So with the newfound determination she grabbed the broom tightly and looked in front of her.

Ginny did the same.

"Go!" George said finally and they were both gone.

Remus grabbed Sirius hand out of worry but Sirius simply smiled at him.

"She'll be okay" he told him low enough so no one else could hear "she's our daughter."

* * *

Hermione didn't know what was happening, she felt the wind on her face and a rush of adrenaline that she hadn't experienced before. The broom she was using was old and it didn't feel as safe as Draco's broom, Aunt Cissa always made sure that the respective safety charms were on place after all, so this was quite the dangerous experience.

"You never mentioned you were good at this!" Ginny yelled, obviously furious, at her.

The little redhead was better than Hermione, that much was obvious, but she wasn't winning. They were side by side, the green scenery around them was blurry because they were going really fast. They had left the Weasley's garden behind them and they were now flying over a green field with several flowers, Hermione would've admired the landscape any other day but for now they were about to arrive at the hill.

Hermione remembered how James once told Harry to use his body weight in order to make the broom faster so trying to imitate that she dived a little and Ginny, who wasn't expecting that, slowed down. Hermione smiled as she reached the hill and directed the broom to turn around but Ginny was still pursuing her hotly.

"She's really annoying" Hermione muttered under her breath.

"Careful!" Ginny yelled "your underwear is showing!"

Hermione blushed and looked down at her legs, Ginny was lying! But that distraction was enough to give the redhead the lead and now Ginny was winning. Hermione huffed as she tried to go faster but the broom wasn't working like in the beginning. The worst part was that she could already see the Weasley's garden and everyone was cheering, Hermione couldn't listen to what everyone was saying but she didn't want to lose!

"Come on!" she said frustrated at not being able to catch up to Ginny.

She was about to cry out of anger when she saw Harry jumping up and down.

"You can do it! Hermione!" he yelled.

Hermione smiled at that and nodded, she could do it! She could reach Harry faster than Ginny!

"I can win!" she said and she felt another rush of magic. Before she knew what was happening the broom went faster and she took the lead, leaving Ginny behind her.

"No!" she heard Ginny yelling.

"Yes!" Hermione yelled back and crossed the fence first, winning the race.

Sirius, James and Harry cheered at the same time at her victory and Remus, who knew that Hermione didn't know how to stop a broom took out his wand and pointed it at her. The broom stopped right in front of him and Hermione laughed loudly as the adrenaline started to leave her system. She was about to get down of the broom when someone picked her up, it was her father.

"That's my daughter!" Sirius yelled and Hermione smiled at him.

"Dad! I won!" she said as he put her on the floor.

Harry ran to hugged her and she hugged him back.

"I knew you would win!" he said proudly.

Hermione was feeling happy again and she ignored Ginny's enraged face.

* * *

The remaining of the lunch went without incidents. Everyone decided that the money would go back to their respective owners, it was nothing but a child's race after all. Molly's food was marvelous and everyone enjoyed themselves. Most of the adults praised Hermione for her amazing demonstration with the broom, although she promised Sirius and Remus that she wouldn't do it again, that one time was enough for a lifetime.

Once it was time to say goodbye Hermione approached Ginny, no one was paying attention to them so it was safe to talk about their agreement.

"What?" Ginny asked her sullenly.

"I'm just saying goodbye" Hermione said innocently "and I want you to keep your part of the deal."

Ginny scowled at her.

"I won't apologize" she said "I won't take back what I said."

Hermione could feel her temper raising.

"It was a deal" she said stubbornly "you should always keep your part of the deal."

Ginny huffed.

"You don't get it, do you? You're an orphan" she said rudely "so what if you have parents now? They are not your real parents, they never will be. Even if I apologize it does not make a difference."

Hermione clenched her fists.

"Why? I've never seen you before this, I've never done anything to you! Why do you hate me so much?!"

Ginny shrugged.

"I don't hate you" she explained "I just don't think that a simply orphan deserves so much luck, that's all."

Hermione's eyes widened, as she realized what the real problem was, Ginny didn't hate her but it was easy to understand her. The little redhead was using worn out clothes, she lived in a little, crowded home and, while she had a lovely family, she couldn't appreciate all of the blessings she had. Hermione couldn't believe it because, a few years back, she would've done anything to be on her place.

"I'm sorry" Hermione said finally smiling at her "I understand now."

Ginny frowned feeling a little offended, why was Hermione looking at her with pity?

"What? What do you understand?" she asked.

"You're just jealous of me" Hermione said smiling at her and Ginny gaped.

"What?!" Ginny asked offended.

"It's okay" Hermione said while turning around to go where her parents were "I understand."

Hermione left leaving a dumbfounded, enraged Ginny behind.

* * *

"I cannot believe that you did it!" Harry said as Hermione kept going through the library picking the books his dad had promised "you hate brooms!"

Hermione chuckled.

"It was a matter of pride" she said, although she kept to herself everything that Ginny had told her. She didn't want Harry to feel the need to take her side, especially since he was getting closer to Ron. Hermione supposed that it would be easier for him not to know about Ginny's real personality.

Because something was telling her that he would find out, sooner or later.

Harry was carrying four books, trying to help Hermione to decide which ones to take with her. He never questioned Hermione love for books, he liked some of them too and whenever she would find interesting spells she would teach them to him or practice with him.

It was fun.

"By the way" Hermione said while looking around Flourish y Blotts to make sure that no one was near them "thank you" she said finally while smiling at Harry.

Harry blinked confused.

"What do you mean?" he asked "why are you thanking me?"

Hermione shrugged.

"I think that you helped me win the race today" she said "after you wished me good luck."

Harry smiled mischievously.

"I knew you would notice!" he said proudly.

"You did it on purpose?" Hermione asked surprised.

"Not really" Harry said while walking side by side with Hermione "I assumed that our magic would react again, I just hoped that it would help you."

Hermione laughed and kissed him on the cheek.

"Thank you" she said sweetly.

Harry blushed and walked faster towards where the adults were while Hermione giggled.

* * *

"Dad!" Hermione called Sirius "I already chose which books I want!"

Sirius turned around to see Harry holding five books while Hermione was holding three.

"I said two!" he admonished "and the pup is going to collapse under those books!"

"I won't!" Harry said stubbornly and James observed amused his red cheeks, he was obviously struggling with the books.

Sirius rolled his eyes and looked at the manager.

"We'll be taking all of those books" he said finally "she won a race today so this is her prize."

"Lord Black," the manager said kindly "in a few years you've become our number one client, please keep visiting."

Sirius snorted.

"In a few years her love for books will leave me without money" he said half joking.

"Thank you, daddy" Hermione said while smiling at him.

Sirius smiled back.

It was the perfect end for a perfect day.

* * *

**I want to thank everyone who reviewed the last chapter and I assure you that I'll update the next one faster, okay? **

**Your reviews are the only thing that makes me want to continue writing these days, thank you! **

**The next chapter is up to you, do you want to see them at Hogwarts already or should I write another chapter about them at home? Let me know! **

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**Pd. I apologize for my grammar mistakes. **


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